TEHRAN, April 11 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has joined the world's nuclear club, the country's president said Tuesday.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on national television that by starting low uranium enrichment, Iran had joined the group of nations possessing nuclear technology.
Ahmadinejad said Iran had successfully completed the research-scale nuclear fuel cycle, having enriched uranium to a degree sufficient for use in nuclear power plants.
He confirmed the Islamic Republic's determination to achieve industrial-scale uranium enrichment for the production of nuclear fuel, but insisted that it had no ambition to develop nuclear weapons.
The West suspects Iran of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, and has repeatedly demanded that it stop all uranium enrichment activities. Officials in Tehran have rejected the demand, saying Iran's nuclear programs are purely civilian and that it has the right to produce nuclear fuel.
