Iran mulling over exports of N. materials despite sanctions

Head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbassi stressed Tehran's continued progress in civilian nuclear technology despite the sanctions imposed on Iran by the West, and said the country is mulling over export of its nuclear technology and products to other countries.In an article released by the official website of the Iranian government on Sunday, Abbassi played down the efforts made by a number of western powers to impose restrictions on the supply of industrial knowledge and materials to Iran, and said sanction "may disrupt our work for a few months, but if this disruption continues, we will definitely move towards producing and manufacturing" our needed materials, tools and equipment. He stated that although sanctions have had some limited negative impacts on Iran's progress, they have also made Iran focus and rely on its domestic capabilities. For instance, he said, vacuum technology is among those items whose supply to Iran has been banned for the last 30 years. "Therefore, we have decided to start its domestic development and production inside the country." "Now we are mulling over self-sufficiency in this regard. Yet, when we decide to make investment in a given ground, we should consider the cost-benefit factor, and thus we are thinking of export in this field." Hence, the West's sanctions and Iran's resultant investment in supplying its needs to the vacuum technology lead Iran towards domestic production and joining the global market as an exporter of the vacuum technology, he added. The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic. But, Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.