Foreign minister: France doesn’t believe Iran’s claim it can enrich uranium to 80 percent

France does not believe Iran’s nuclear claim

PARIS — France does not believe Iran’s claim that it is capable of enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels, the country’s foreign minister said Friday.

Bernard Kouchner told Europe 1 radio that the “Americans don’t believe, not any more than us, that Iran is currently capable of enriching uranium to 80 percent.”

But Iran’s claim “adds to the dangerousness” of the situation, he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that Iran has the capacity “to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent” but that it doesn’t intend to build a bomb. A 90 percent-plus level is needed for a weapon.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Iran’s leadership has made a series of statements about its nuclear prowess based on politics, not physics. “We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching,” he said in Washington.

Still, the Obama administration said such claims were still disturbing and fed fears that Iran’s long-term goal is to make nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is for energy and medical isotopes.

France has joined the United States in pushing for a new, fourth round of sanctions against Iran for defying U.N. demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Kouchner said France is working now to persuade China, Brazil and other U.N. Security Council members to back new measures.