by Siyabonga Ntshingila ;

Flying straight in the face of global sentiment, Iran has announced its intentions to build a further 10 uranium enrichment facilities in the coming year.

Last week Iran had indicated a willingness to co-operate with the West on its nuclear ambitions, signalling that it was prepared to help allay fears around its atomic bombs intentions. Yet on Sunday President Ahmadinejad instructed the country’s atomic energy authority to proceed with work on fuelling a reactor in the national capital Tehran while at the same time apparently leaving the door open for further negotiation and co-operation.

Later in the day Ali Akbar Salehi the country’s nuclear energy chief announced the country’s plans to build the uranium enrichment facilities in a move likely to spark another diplomatic row with the West and especially Israel which is publicly wary of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Salehi did however throw the West a political conundrum by stating that Iran would halt these plans if it were to receive fuel at the necessary level of enrichment from abroad. This move is likely designed to put the West in a catch-22 as it most likely does not want to be seen as aiding Tehran nuclear ambitions but at the same time does not want to give Iran justification for going it alone and unsupervised.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for nuclear power plants and, if refined much further, provide material for bombs. Iran currently enriches uranium to a level of 3.5 percent. A nuclear bomb would require 80 percent or more.