Iranian Parliament Considers Scrapping Deal With Europe, Resuming Uranium Enrichment

Iranian members of parliament are considering a bill to nullify an agreement signed last year with the United Kingdom, France and Germany and force resumption of uranium enrichment activities, a senior deputy said today (see GSN, June 30).

“There are preliminary talks among the MPs,” said Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Majlis national security and foreign policy committee. “It has not yet been approved in the committee, but there are talks to end the voluntary suspension,” he added.

Under the deal with the European nations, Iran agreed to make several “confidence-building” gestures to the International Atomic Energy Agency (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, July 1).

Meanwhile, Iran said yesterday it did not have to refrain from building centrifuges for uranium enrichment, the Associated Press reported.

“We have no obligation to postpone the construction of the centrifuges,” said Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, traveling in Mexico (Morgan Lee, Associated Press/Boston Herald, June 30).

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