Diplomats told AFP on 1 June 2006 that Iran had stopped feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into its centrifuges at Natanz, a technical pause or political signal ahead of talks in Vienna among the six major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
The development followed an offer by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said Washington was ready to join multilateral negotiations with Tehran provided Iran suspends enrichment. The EU-3 (Britain, Germany and France) had led talks with Iran since October 2003; those negotiations broke down last August when Tehran resumed uranium hexafluoride production.
Iran began introducing the gas into a 164-centrifuge cascade in February 2006 and produced low-enriched uranium by April, at concentrations suitable for reactor fuel. Diplomats floated a possible compromise: Iran could keep centrifuges spinning but without feedstock gas and without expanding capacity. US officials held firm that no actual enrichment was acceptable.
Iran has produced about 110 tons of uranium hexafluoride since last September. If fully enriched, that quantity could yield material for roughly 20 nuclear weapons, according to analyst David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. Actual enriched output so far amounts to a few dozen grams, far short of the 15 to 25 kilograms needed for a single weapon.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.