Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Iran has inaugurated two mines that will supply the Yazd complex in the center of the country. The confirmation comes from the same state television. Both centers produce uranium concentrate or "yellow cake" and are located in Sagand about 100 km north of central Ardakan (central Iran). It has an annual production capacity of about 60 tons of enriched uranium.
The opening of the two centers comes just days after the failure of talks between Iran and the UN Security Council plus Germany in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Meetings between representatives of the countries of the 5 +1 and Iran resumed in 2012 after over a year of stalemate. Beginning in April 24, 2012 in Istanbul, the parties met on two further occasions in Baghdad (23-24 May) and Moscow (18-19 June), but always with disappointing results. Recently, the U.S. and Israel called for a tightening of sanctions against Tehran. On 8 February, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instead downplayed the U.S. offer of direct dialogue and bilateral cooperation on Tehran's nuclear program. For the spiritual leader of Iran, the dialogue would take place under duress because - alluding to the sanctions - the U.S. "keeps a gun" pointed at Iran.
According to Egyptian
political scientist Abbas Mohamed Nagi, an expert on Iran, "any nuclear
deal is unlikely until a new president is elected." The
presentation of the candidates will be held from May 7 to 11, while the date of
the referendum is scheduled for early June. Another
reason for the stalemate is the recent crisis of confidence that has seen Iran's
two key allies - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese Shiite movement
Hezbollah - lose support and power. "Syria
- he says - is the main political ally of Iran and until now was its door to
the Arab world and also the only outlet to the Mediterranean. The Al-Assad regime
is losing ground and the fighting has even arrived in Damascus.
In
Lebanon, the government of Naguib Mikati supported by Hezbollah has resigned, a
move that distanced Iran from the Lebanese political arena, weakening the
influence of Iran in the region even more. "