Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed Thursday that his country has produced its first package of highly enriched uranium just two days after starting the process. According to the AP, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday told hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic that the country was now a "nuclear state." However, he insisted that Iran had no intention to build nuclear arms.
"I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," he said. "We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don't enrich because we don't need it," he declared.
Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's position that it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons. "When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe in manufacturing a bomb," he told the crowd. "If we wanted to manufacture a bomb, we would announce it ... our nation has the courage to explicitly say it and build it and not fear you."
