http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-0 8-08T185127Z_01_N08343525_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-NUCLEAR-IRAN-DC.XML Iran resumes atomic work, escalates crisis Mon Aug 8, 2005 2:51 PM ET By Parisa Hafezi
ISFAHAN, Iran (Reuters) - Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion plant on Monday, fanning Western fears it may be seeking nuclear weapons and defying EU warnings that it could be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, confirmed Iran has restarted some nuclear activities that had been mothballed under a deal with the European Union's three biggest powers. The agency stopped short, however, of saying that Iran had ended its suspension of all atomic activities that could be used to develop weapons agreed with the EU in Paris in November. Britain, Germany and France, heading nuclear negotiations with Iran for the EU, have called an emergency meeting of the IAEA board of governors for Tuesday at its headquarters in Vienna. France and Britain later condemned Iran's actions. "IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei informed members of the (IAEA) board of governors that Iran today started to feed uranium ore concentrate into the first part of the process line at the uranium conversion facility," it said in a statement. "It should be noted that the sealed parts of the process line remain intact," said the statement, issued on the eve of an emergency IAEA board meeting about the Iran crisis. To monitor Tehran's compliance with the Paris agreement, the IAEA had sealed sensitive equipment at Iran's uranium conversion facility at Isfahan and its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. EU diplomats said breaking any IAEA seals would cross a red line that would eventually lead to a U.N. referral. Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Tehran intended to break IAEA seals and restart work at other parts of the Isfahan plant on Tuesday. ENRICHMENT At Isfahan, two workers wearing white overalls, face masks and hard hats lifted a barrel of uranium yellow cake, opened its lid and fed it into the processing line. It means Isfahan, which processes raw uranium to prepare it for enrichment, has restarted the nuclear fuel cycle. Using the sealed parts of the plant would take the process further, but still nowhere near the possibility of making nuclear weapons. Tehran has so far been careful to stress that it is not restarting work on the most sensitive element of the cycle -- uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make reactor fuel or atomic warheads. A nuclear scientist, who declined to be named, said: "I am excited, I didn't believe it until the last moment thinking this may not happen, but now I am very happy." Iran suspended nuclear fuel work as a confidence-building measure while it explored a long-term arrangement with the EU. Iran -- which denies harboring nuclear weapons ambitions -- also delivered its formal rejection of a EU package of political and economic incentives designed to persuade it to scrap nuclear fuel work for good. "The EU proposal was very insulting and humiliating," Saeedi said. SHARP REACTIONS French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Iran's resumption of nuclear work violated November's accord, adding the tone of Tehran's rejection of EU proposals was "particularly alarming." "It's a clear violation of the Paris accord and the resolutions of the IAEA," Douste-Blazy told France Info radio "It's a new situation that only makes us increase our doubts over the aims of the Iranian program." Last week, Douste-Blazy said Iran would be brought before the Security Council for possible sanctions if it ended the nuclear suspension. British Foreign Office Minister Ian Pearson described Iran's rejection of the EU offer as "damaging." A State Department official, who asked not to be named because the United States was forming its official response, said: "It's a symbolic, political, in-your-face move. But it makes no sense that in some way this is in Iran's interest." Despite the sharp reactions, EU diplomats said it would not be easy to convince all 35 IAEA board members at this week's meeting to issue a stern warning to Iran to refrain from all uranium conversion and enrichment activities -- which it has the right to conduct under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran, aware of its legal rights and the lack of unanimity on the IAEA board, said it was unconcerned. "Even if they issue a resolution tomorrow, since it would have no legal basis and would violate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we won't accept it and will carry on with our work," Saeedi told a reporters invited to witness the resumption of work at Isfahan. Iran says the EU proposal, which included offers of help to develop civilian nuclear energy and in becoming a major transit route for Central Asian oil, is unacceptable as it denies Iran the right to produce its own nuclear fuel. (Additional reporting by Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Washington, London bureaux) C Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hp9utcc/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123541319/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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