Iran resumes nuclear work

2005-08-08 15:29

Isfahan - Iran put itself on a collision course with the West on Monday after it resumed ultra-sensitive nuclear fuel work at its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan despite warnings from the international community.

"Iran has resumed the conversion of uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," said the IAEA's vice-president Mohammad Saidi.

The move, which risks seeing Iran hauled before the United Nations security council, comes after Iran rejected as "unacceptable" a package of European Union (EU) proposals aimed at guaranteeing it was not trying to build the bomb.

Iran had insisted it would resume the process, which turns uranium ore into a feed gas for enrichment, despite numerous warnings from the United States and the Europeans.

Emergency meeting

The EU, which has been negotiating with Iran for nine months, had already called for an emergency meeting on Tuesday of the IAEA board during which an ultimatum demanding a commitment to suspend nuclear fuel work is expected.

The crisis has escalated since Iran's ultra-conservative President Mahmood Ahmadinejad took office last week, with the new leader on Monday putting a fellow hardline in charge of the nuclear dossier.

A government spokesperson said Ali Larijani, a former boss of state-run media who has distinguished himself by his intransigency over Iran's nuclear ambitions, would soon take up the post.

Larijani replaces Hassan Rowhani and his appointment will worry some Western negotiators.

Larijani has described giving up Iran's right to uranium enrichment in exchange for EU incentives as like swapping "a pearl for a sweet".

Hotly contested debate about nuclear weapons

Iran had agreed in November to suspend uranium conversion and enrichment while negotiations on its nuclear programme were under way with the EU-3 of Britain, France and Germany.

But last week it rejected an EU package of trade, technology and security incentives to abandon the nuclear fuel cycle work, sparking warnings that negotiations with the EU could be over and cause security council intervention.

Iran's conservative-controlled parliament had demanded that uranium conversion resume ahead of Tuesday's meeting of the IAEA governors, outside the watchdog's supervision if necessary.

The EU incentives, backed by the US, aim to allow the Islamic republic the right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy activities as long as it refrains from fuel-cycle work that could help it make atomic weapons.

The US, which is not a party to the EU offer, charges that Iran is using its civilian programme as a cover to secretly develop nuclear weapons, something Iran has always denied.

Tehran insists however that actual enrichment remains suspended at the underground Natanz plant and it still wants to pursue negotiations with the Europeans.

- AFP