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Israel has warned the international community not to delay in dealing with Iran after the Islamic republic announced that it had enriched uranium for the first time. The U.S. said Iran was moving in the “wrong direction.”

Both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Iran had succeeded in enriching a small amount of uranium.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel a civilian nuclear reactor, but if it is enriched to a higher degree, it is a key component for an atomic weapon. Experts have said that once Tehran possessed this technology, the nation would be well on its way to developing a nuclear bomb.

Oil-rich Iran says its nuclear program is intended for civilian energy production, but the Western world believes Iran has used its civilian program to conceal a clandestine program to develop an atomic bomb.

Israel said the announcements on Tuesday should prove the “true nature” of the Iranian program and spark concerns about the timeline.

“Iran’s announcement serves as a further example of the real danger in delaying concrete diplomatic measures in the face of the continuing Iranian refusal to comply with international demands to stop its nuclear activities,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

“Israel believes that the Iranian nuclear program should be confronted by a broad and determined international coalition,” Regev said.

The U.N. Security Council had given Iran until the end of the month to comply with a demand from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the United Nations nuclear watchdog — that it fully suspend its enrichment research and activities.

In response to the news, Washington said that Iran was “moving in the wrong direction.”

This report “only further underscores why the international community has serious concerns about the regime’s nuclear ambitions,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

Rafsanjani told the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA that Iran had operated 164 centrifuges, producing the first stage of nuclear fuel.

IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei is due in Iran this week. Rafsanjani said that ElBaradei would see the new developments during his visit.

Ahmadinejad said that Iran had completed its first enrichment two days ago.

Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s nuclear program, said that Iranian scientists had succeeded in enriching uranium to a concentration of 3.5 percent.

Ahmadinejad, who is on a tour of Iran’s provinces, said on Tuesday that his country would soon join the world’s nuclear technology club. He declared that the “equation would change for the good of the Iranian people,” media reports said.

On Monday, the Iranian president said that the international community knew it could not “deprive the Iranian nation of its right by exerting political pressure.” He made it clear that Tehran would not “retreat” from what it considers to be its rights.

Dr. Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, said the significance of the development is that Iran has “moved into a new stage,” which should concern the international community.

Iran has not produced enough fuel to make a nuclear bomb yet, Kam said. But if the nation’s rulers are telling the truth, they now control the technology to enrich uranium.

Kam estimated it would take several thousand centrifuges to make enough uranium for a bomb, but it is not complicated once they possess the technology, he said. Within two to three years, Iran could possess enough material to produce a bomb, he said.

The fact that they did not hesitate to make Tuesday’s announcement also reflects the new kind of leadership in Ahmadinejad and shows they don’t care what other countries think, Kam added.

By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) — Visitors are returning to the Holy Land in near record numbers this year, despite five years of violence in the region that continues to this day.

On Good Friday, Christian pilgrims from around the world crowded the alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City and packed the plaza outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Some 90,000 visitors are expected during this Passover/Easter week — up from 75,000 during this same week last year, the Tourism Ministry said.

In 2000, Israel expected a record number of tourists, in a year when Christians were celebrating the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ birth. But the Palestinian uprising, which began in earnest in September 2000, sent tourism into a tailspin.

Last year, about 1.9 million tourists visited Israel: 43 percent were Jewish; 42 percent Christian; and five percent were Muslims or “other.” More than 2.6 million tourists are expected in all of 2006. That would be an all-time high, according to the Tourism Ministry.

(The Frommer’s travel guide people attribute the increase in tourism to a more aggressive visit-Israel marketing campaign and new, direct airline routes.)

Winding through the narrow streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, pilgrims mingled with local Arab Jerusalemites doing their Friday shopping.

Carrying a four-foot wooden cross, one group of Indonesians pressed through the streets singing Christian songs in their native tongue to guitar music. One man from the group stood out from the crowd, blessing Israel in a loud voice.

Another small group of pilgrims knelt to pray aloud on the stony street.

Thousands of pilgrims packed the square in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, marking the day on which Jesus was crucified.

Patti Humble, 41, from Atlanta, Georgia, is here for the first time. “It’s a pilgrimage to see the Holy Land. It’s very special coming during Holy Week,” said Humble, referring to the week between Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and Easter Sunday, when Christians believe he was resurrected from the dead.

“It was one of the things I wanted to do in my lifetime, and this was the opportunity,” said Humble’s mother, Marie Peters, 80, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Seeing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was the highlight for her, she said. “Pictures just don’t do it justice. You can’t get the feeling,” she said.

Originally built in 330 A.D. by the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the Church was built on the hill where Jesus was crucified and buried, according to some Christian traditions.

Andree Chicha, part of the same U.S. tour group, was also on a pilgrimage — her first trip to the Holy Land.

“I’m overwhelmed. It’s been absolutely fantastic. Last night was the most special. It was going from the Garden of Gethsemane procession up to where Jesus was imprisoned. Doing it on the same night that he was walking that path was overwhelming,” she said.

Chicha said she was not afraid to come. “I thought Holy Week in the Holy Land this I cannot miss… I thought that if something would happen to me here it was my time and it would be the right place for it to happen,” she said.

One Israeli couple, originally from Canada, said they were glad to see so many Christians visiting Israel again.

“It’s great to see also that people are not put off by the fear of what the press has to say about visiting the Holy Land or Israel. They’re coming here in droves for this special occasion. It’s great to see that people of faith will come and continue to come,” said the husband, who identified himself only as Stephen.

Just outside the church compound, Sam Atiah, who owns a souvenir shop, said he hopes the visitor influx will last.

“There [are] plenty of people coming, going in and out and I hope things [are] going to become better but we have to wait and see,” said Atiah. “I keep my fingers crossed,” he said. “I can’t tell you if business is picking up, but we see a lot of people going and coming, so we hope so.”

Not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, outside the Old City walls, is the Garden Tomb, which dates back to the first century and in which many believe Jesus could have been buried.

Ken Trestrail, 78, from Cornwall, England, has volunteered at the Garden Tomb on and off since 1981 as a “guide, comforter, whatever is needed,” he said.

The Garden Tomb, also known as the jewel of East Jerusalem, was established as a tourist site after an English general, Charles Gordon, discovered in 1884 a prominent rocky crag resembling a skull. According to the Bible, the place where Jesus was crucified was called Golgotha — the place of the skull. An ancient tomb was nearby.

On Friday morning, about 100 visitors came to the Garden Tomb for a Good Friday service. Many others entered the gardens for a day of meditation.

“The month of March is the third busiest March since 1990,” said Trestrail. “So tourism has grown considerably these past few months. We did have a very, very, very bad spell all through the intifadah period, but now it’s much, much better.”

Even when things were bad, the Indonesians kept coming, he said. (Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.) “Americans and Brits are coming more freely now, which is good. We missed them. Thus far we haven’t lost anybody in the intifadah period,” said Trestrail.

Joani and Ray Duncan from northern California said they came to visit despite relatives’ concerns. “[It's] totally safe. I recommend, especially to Christians, you’ve got to come. I mean, to be where Jesus was, it’s just the ultimate of being a Christian,” said Joani.

Donna DePerfia, originally from Chicago, said she drew inspiration from her tour guide.

“I was under the impression that we would have a Christian tour guide and we actually had a Jewish tour guide. I really wanted a Christian, but I think he made Jesus even more real as a person to us because Jesus was Jewish,” DePerfia said.

“I think every Christian should be here. I think non-Christians should be here, just because I think a lot of non-Christians don’t know anything about Christianity. I think it’s an eye-opener,” she said.

Joshua Loiloande is a Quaker teacher from Kenya, who is working at a Christian school in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

“I’ve come to join others in remembering the great day that Jesus died for our sins, to redeem the whole world for it is also great importance to come where I believe that His body was laid,” said Loiloande.