Iran celebrates revolution vowing nuke advance

Iran celebrates revolution vowing nuke advance
President Ahmadinejad has promised he will announce 'good news'

Iran kicks off 10 days of celebrations on Thursday marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, with officials promising the unveiling of a major advance in its controversial nuclear drive.

The festivities known as the "Decade of Fajr" (Dawn) culminate on February 11, the date 28 years ago when the US-backed Shah's regime fell to revolutionaries led by the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already said he will announce "good news" about the development of the nation's nuclear programme during the anniversary celebrations.

Iran has defied the international community and vowed to press on with its nuclear work despite a UN resolution in December imposing sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Enrichment is the focus of Western fears that Tehran is seeking to build nuclear weapons as the process can make the fissile core of an atom bomb as well as nuclear fuel.

Iran, OPEC's second largest oil exporter, insists it has the right to nuclear technology as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and that its programme is purely designed to generate energy.

The "Decade of Fajr" begins at 9:33 (0603 GMT) on Thursday, the exact time Khomeini landed at Tehran airport, making a triumphant return from exile in France greeted by massive crowds of fervent supporters.

As the clock strikes that minute, school and churches bells will toll, train and ship horns will be sounded and factory sirens wail.

Flowers will also be laid at Khomeini's shrine in southern Tehran in the main cemetery where many of Iran's war dead are buried.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's former president and the current head of its powerful arbitration body, will make a speech at the shrine, which marks the spot where Khomenei told throngs of his revolutionary supporters about the creation of an Islamic regime.

Iran's outspoken populist president is then expected to make a speech on February 11 in the captial's main Azadi (Freedom) square, where a 100-strong orchestra will play a "nuclear symphony".

"Iranian people, with faith in God, wisdom and resistance, will defend their inalienable rights... and celebrate the realization of their peaceful nuclear rights during Fajr," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

"The country's overall policies are decided by the supreme leader and the government has to apply them. The president, who heads the executive power, announces our nuclear position," said Ahmadinejad, who has faced increasing domestic criticism over his handling of the nuclear issue.

In December, deputy foreign minister Mehdi Mostafavi was quoted as saying that the first phase of production of nuclear fuel for industrial needs would commence during Fajr.

Iran is planning to increase its enrichment capacity by installing 3,000 centrifuges, the machines which enrich uranium, at an underground facility in Natanz.

It is already running two pilot cascades of 164-centrifuges each in Natanz, allowing for an enrichment capacity that is currently low and research-oriented.

However, there have been conflicting reports about whether the extra centrifuges have already been installed.

Iranian leaders have so far have not shown any intention of yielding to demands of UN resolution 1737 and suspending enrichment despite a call by UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei for a "timeout" in the showdown.

Iran could however face more sanctions after February 21 when ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is due to submit a report on its compliance to the UN Security Council.