Reformists hope elections will unseat Ahmadinejad
As Iranian people prepare to choose between reformist Mousavi and current hardline president, diplomats report Iran refused IAEA request to add cameras to Natanz nuclear facility
Iran's presidential candidates ended a hard-fought and bitter campaign on Thursday, the eve of an election which reformists hope will prevent hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning a second term.
The campaign has seen unprecedented political mudslinging and large rallies in Tehran by supporters of moderate former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, who a senior Revolutionary Guard officer accused of attempting a "velvet revolution."
Friday's highly charged election could set the tone for Iran's relations with the West, concerned over its nuclear ambitions, and analysts say a victory for Mousavi could increase the prospect for Western investment in the Islamic Republic.
If none of the four candidates wins an outright majority on Friday the two leading candidates will go into a June 19 run-off, which the analyst said Mousavi had a good chance of winning.
But others predict a victory for the incumbent, based on his popularity among the rural poor. "Ahmadinejad has a lot of support throughout the country," said Hamid Najafi, editor-in-chief of the conservative Kayhan International.
'No additional surveillance at Natanz'
Iran has rebuffed a bid from the UN nuclear monitoring agency to beef up its monitoring ability at an important key atomic site as it tries to keep track of Tehran's rapidly growing uranium enrichment capabilities, diplomats said Thursday.
In addition, they said, the agency was concerned Iran would use its recent denial of access to Natanz to agency inspectors seeking a surprise visit as a precedent, further hampering the UN agency's need to increase its oversight.
The three diplomats — all from IAEA member nations — said it was possible that Iran could reconsider, emphasizing that talks continued between the agency and Iranian officials on the surveillance and inspection issues. They demanded anonymity in comments to The Associated Press because their information was confidential.
Still, Iran's reluctance to allow the agency to upgrade its monitoring is troubling at a time of rapid expansion both of the number of uranium enriching machines and their ability to produce material that could be upgraded into weapons-grade uranium.
Since Iran's clandestine enrichment efforts were revealed more than six years, ago, the country has steadily expanded activities at its cavernous underground facility at Natanz, a city about 500 km south of Tehran.
An IAEA report circulated last week said nearly 5,000 centrifuges were now enriching at Natanz — about 1,000 more than at the time of the last agency report, issued in February — with more than 2,000 others ready to start enriching.
Iran says it is interested in producing only low-enriched uranium for fuel use, not highly enriched material for the fissile core of nuclear weapons, and the international nuclear agency has detected no effort at Natanz to contravene its assertion.
Still, if Iran decided to risk an international crisis by reconfiguring its centrifuge setup, it would have the ability to process its low-enriched material into weapons-grade uranium.
Most experts estimate that the over 1,000 kilograms — 2,200 pounds — of low-enriched uranium Iran had accumulated by February was already enough to produce enough weapons-grade material through further enrichment for one nuclear weapon.
And as it expands its operations at Natanz, its potential capacity to produce highly enriched uranium is also growing.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
