Iran to complain to UN over US nuclear "threat"

Iran will lodge a complaint with the United Nations about what it sees as U.S. President Barack Obama's threat to attack it with nuclear weapons, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Obama made clear last week that Iran and North Korea were excluded from new limits on the use of U.S. atomic weapons -- something Tehran interpreted as a threat from a long-standing adversary to attack it with nuclear bombs.

"Saying this kind of remark shows that it is those countries which possess nuclear weapons which are themselves the biggest threats to the world's security," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the semi-official Fars news agency.

"We will officially present our complaints to the United Nations about these kinds of threats," he said. The complaint was backed by a letter signed by 255 of Iran's 290 members of parliament, Fars said.

Obama is pressing other global powers to agree to a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Iran denies.

Saying this kind of remark shows that it is those countries which possess nuclear weapons which are themselves the biggest threats to the world's security

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast

New type of missile

Reflecting fears of attack on its nuclear sites from the United States or its closest Middle East ally Israel, the defense ministry said Iran had started producing a prototype of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system.

"The Mersad air defense system ... is able to destroy modern aircraft at low and medium range altitude," the ISNA news agency on Sunday quoted Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying.

"The mass production of this product has begun and in the course of the current year a large number of them will be delivered to the armed forces," he said.

Iran is also urging Russia to resist Western pressure not to deliver the S-300 missile defense system it has ordered.

On Friday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran's nuclear program was "irreversible" despite limits on importing foreign technology and the threat of new sanctions, and he unveiled a prototype of an improved centrifuge which would enrich uranium faster than existing models.

Western analysts say Iran has exaggerated progress in the past to bolster domestic pride about its nuclear program and to improve its bargaining position with major powers.

The Mersad air defense system ... is able to destroy modern aircraft at low and medium range altitude

Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi

"Not a technical issue"

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization played down the idea that Iran faced big technical hurdles.

"Iran's nuclear issue is not a technical issue ... we are not in a hurry. Second generation centrifuges will be mass produced in the next few months ... in a year we will have prototype cascades of the third generation," Ali Akbar Salehi said.

"The mass production of second generation centrifuges will begin in the coming months," Salehi said on state television late Saturday.

On Friday Iran unveiled a third generation centrifuge it said can enrich uranium six times faster than the IR-1 system at its plant in the central city of Natanz.

The Natanz facility has a capacity of 60,000 centrifuges, and Iran has been steadily enriching uranium there for years in defiance of three sets of U.N. sanctions and threat of a fourth.

The enrichment method used by Iran is a classic type in which uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas is whizzed around in a centrifuge at supersonic speeds to separate the precious U-235 isotope from the denser U-238.

Salehi said Iranian scientists would inject UF6 gas in the third generation centrifuge in few months, adding however, "maybe it needs a year for us to witness a chain of them."

"Once our appraisal of third generation (centrifuges) is complete and we reach its mass production, the manufacture of the second generation machine will be stopped."

Iran's nuclear issue is not a technical issue ... we are not in a hurry. Second generation centrifuges will be mass produced in the next few months ... in a year we will have prototype cascades of the third generation

Ali Akbar Salehi