Ahmadinejad: Ready For ‘Final step’ In Its Nuclear Program

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently said Iran was ready to take the ‘final step’ in its nuclear program, as he maintained his defiance in the face of possible UN sanctions against Tehran. ‘The enemies of the Iranian people must know that the Iranian people have taken their decision and will resist until the end,’ the semi-official Mehr agency quoted him as saying in a speech in Baneh in Kurdestan province. ‘In the nuclear case we are ready to take the final step and I hope that by the end of the year (Iranian year to March 2007) we will be able to hold the great celebration of Iran's nuclear right,’ he added. Ahmadinejad, who has made a string of similar comments in recent days, did not specify where the step would take Iran's nuclear program. However Iranian officials have repeatedly said that the short-term goal of Iran's nuclear program is to install some 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at its plant in Natanz by March 2007.