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Iran to Resume Some Nuclear Activities While Sticking to Uranium Enrichment Freeze
Iran confirmed today that it plans to resume some nuclear activities, but would stop short of enriching uranium, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 2). “Very certainly we will resume some of our activities,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “We are in the process of discussing among ourselves which activities, but this does not concern enrichment,” he said, adding that a decision would be made in about a week. “The negotiations [with the EU] are continuing, and as long as they continue the suspension of enrichment will continue,” Asefi said. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned that a decision by Iran to resume enrichment “would lead to a collapse of the talks,” forcing Brussels to side with Washington and refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council. He said the goal of talks was a “permanent cessation of the enrichment process,” which diplomats have said includes uranium conversion, according to AFP. Asefi, however, said Iran was not concerned about such warnings. “The Europeans know that we are not afraid of threats. This kind of rhetoric will have no impact on Iran,” he said. Iran should not unilaterally resume any enrichment activities, said International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. “I would hope that the Iranians will not take any unilateral decisions to initiate any activities that now are currently suspended. I think that any future move has to be agreed between both parties,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, May 3). Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani was quoted Sunday as saying that Iran could resume uranium conversion next week, AFP reported. “It is unlikely that we will resume enrichment, that is to say the activities at Natanz. But some activities at the UCF (Uranium Conversion Facility) at Isfahan could resume next week,” said Rohani (Agence France-Presse/TODAYonline.com, May 1). No additional negotiations with British, French or German officials have been scheduled, said Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, who met with Fischer yesterday, AFP reported. “We were discussing ways and means of how to move ahead. Still we have to continue our negotiations,” Kharazi said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, May 2). Iran’s threat to resume some nuclear activities has led to greater tension between the EU negotiators and Washington, diplomats said yesterday. Senior European officials expressed frustration to their U.S. counterparts over the Bush administration’s refusal to participate in talks, the Financial Times reported. At the same time, Washington was concerned that the EU would not keep its promise to refer Iran to the United Nations when the time came, said one U.S. official (Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, May 3). Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday spoke again of U.S. support for the negotiations, AFP reported. “I reiterated to the foreign minister our support for the EU-3 negotiations with Iran that are aimed at getting Iran to give confidence to the international community,” Rice said, referring to French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who was traveling in Washington. Barnier and Rice had “a lot of questions still on whether Iran is taking [the negotiations] seriously,” said a senior State Department official. “It’s hard to say that [the negotiations] are solid when you have a party to the talks who every time they come to a new round threatens to blow the whole thing up,” the official said (Agence France-Presse/TurkishPress.com, May 2).
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