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EU Expected to Condemn Iran Centrifuge Research Plans
The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom are expected to issue a joint declaration criticizing Iran’s stated intention to resume research on uranium enrichment centrifuges, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 7). Centrifuge research “would not only go against the commitments made to the EU-3 but also the demands of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors,” said one EU-3 diplomat. France warned that such moves could undermine the pending resumption of EU-Iran nuclear talks. “By their statements and conditions they set, the Iranian authorities risk compromising the possibility of finding a basis on which to resume negotiations,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei warned yesterday (Mark Heinrich, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Dec. 7). The United Kingdom issued a separate statement today saying Iran was hurting the chances for renewed negotiations, Agence France-Press reported. “The U.K. regrets recent comments by [top Iranian nuclear negotiator] Dr. [Ali] Larijani, suggesting that Iran would shortly resume centrifuge activity,” the British Embassy in Tehran said. “The European side made clear in Vienna that any resumption of enrichment or enrichment-related activity would seriously aggravate the situation,” the statement added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 8). Meanwhile, the British American Security Information Council said in a statement issued Tuesday that the West’s warning about Security Council action against Tehran lack credibility. The statement also suggested that Iran be permitted to conduct limited nuclear fuel production, possibly to include low enrichment of uranium that could be used for power reactors but not nuclear weapons. As a compromise, the statement said that Iran stop work on a heavy-water reactor it is constructing at Arak, according to Reuters (Heinrich, Reuters, Dec. 7). Elsewhere, Russia and Iran have agreed to finalize a timetable in February for the launch of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, RIA Novosti reported. Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency head Sergei Kiriyenko and three visiting Iranian officials agreed to the plan yesterday in Moscow (RIA Novosti, Dec. 7).
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