Iran hails nuclear advance on Revolution Day

Ahmadinejad told a vast, flag-waving crowd of government  supporters in central Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square that Iran  could now enrich uranium to more than 80 percent purity, coming  close to levels experts say is needed for a nuclear bomb,  although he again denied any such intention.

“The Iranian nation is brave enough that if one day we  wanted to build nuclear bombs we would announce it publicly  without being afraid of you,” Ahmadinejad said, addressing  Iran’s Western enemies.

He told the crowd: “When we say that we don’t build nuclear  bombs, it means that we won’t do that because we don’t believe  in having it.”

The United States does not believe Iran is capable of  enriching uranium to that degree, White House spokesman Robert  Gibbs said in response.

“Iran has made a series of statements that are … based on  politics, not on physics,” he told reporters.

In Vienna, a think-tank tracking nuclear proliferation said  that “while Iran may take longer than expected to make  sufficient weapons-grade uranium, few believe it will fail in  that effort.”

The report by David Albright and Christina Walrond of the  Institute for Science and International Security said  international sanctions had slowed Iran’s progress but not  stopped it.

Iranian State television said “tens of millions of people”  rallied to support the revolution across the country of 70  million, which is facing its worst domestic crisis in three  decades after a disputed presidential election.

Opposition supporters have coalesced around the reformists  who lost to Ahmadinejad in the election last June, and refused  to yield to government demands to halt protests.

State television showed footage of hundreds of thousands of  people, some carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme  Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walking to the square.

Khamenei later thanked the Iranian people for turning out  in such numbers.

An opposition website, Iran’s Green Voice, said security  forces fired shots and teargas at supporters of opposition  leader Mirhossein Mousavi staging a Tehran counter-rally on the  anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Shah.