UN Plans `Stiff' Message

Iran on Nuclear Program, U.S. Says

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council is preparing a ``stiff message'' for Iran on its nuclear program, a senior U.S. diplomat said today, as Iran announced that its scientists have raised their uranium enrichment to 4.8 percent.

The UN is planning a resolution with a ``stiff international message,'' as ``this is the kind of message Iran needs to hear now,'' U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told reporters in Paris.

In Tehran, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said his scientists have enriched uranium to 4.8 percent, the state-run Iranian Student News Agency reported. A concentration of 3 to 5 percent is needed to fuel a power plant, while 90 percent is required for a weapon, according to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Maryland.

``The Security Council has no option now but to proceed under Chapter 7'' of the UN Charter, Burns said at a news conference in Paris before a meeting of foreign ministry political directors from the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany. Chapter 7 provides for measures up to the ``use of armed force'' for non-compliance with UN resolutions.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had joined the ``nuclear club'' on April 9 by enriching uranium to 3.5 percent. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei on April 28 confirmed that Iran had enriched uranium to 3.6 percent by April 16.

``Enrichment of more than 5 percent is not part of Iran's program,'' Aghazadeh told ISNA. ``This level of enrichment for producing nuclear fuel is sufficient.

arent you relieved that the UN is involved we can rest assured that they will show the world how to handle a rouge country

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