Iran won't change uranium plans

2005-05-03 21:58

New York - Iran is determined to carry out uranium enrichment and rejects the idea that ceasing nuclear fuel activities can guarantee that Tehran is not making nuclear weapons, said Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi on Tuesday.

"Iran, for its part, is determined to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology, including enrichment exclusively for peaceful purposes," Kharazi told a non-proliferation conference at the United Nations.

"But, no one should be under the illusion that objective guarantees can, theoretically or practically, amount to cessation of even long-term suspension of legal activity" such as enrichment, which Iran claims is allowed for peaceful purposes under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Kharazi.

In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid Reza Asefi said on Tuesday that Iran would resume some nuclear activities suspended as part of a deal with the European Union, despite the threat of international sanctions.

Has voiced frustration

Iran agreed in November last year to suspend its fuel cycle work - the focus of international fears the country may be seeking the atomic bomb - and open talks with Britain, France and Germany.

But the clerical regime has since voiced frustration about the negotiations, in which EU negotiators are offering incentives in return for "objective guarantees" from Iran that it will not develop the bomb.

"Very certainly, we will resume some of our activities," Asefi told reporters.

- AFP