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Iran Defies IAEA Resolution Calling for Nuclear Suspension, Resumes Uranium Conversion
Iran has begun converting uranium ore as part of the process of uranium enrichment, the country’s top atomic energy official announced yesterday, defying the latest International Atomic Energy Agency resolution calling on the Islamic republic to halt all enrichment work (see GSN, Sept. 17). Iran has converted “some of the 37 tons” of uranium ore it has mined, said Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organization. “Tests have been successful but these tests have to be continued using the rest of this material,” he said (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse, Sept. 21). In a Saturday resolution, the IAEA’s Board of Governors urged Iran to “suspend all [uranium] enrichment-related activities,” among other demands. Iranian leaders quickly rejected the resolution. “We’ve made our choice: yes to peaceful nuclear technology; no to atomic weapons.” Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said yesterday during a military parade in Tehran. “We will continue along our path even if it leads to an end to international supervision” of the country’s nuclear activities (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 21). In Washington yesterday, a U.S. State Department spokesman accused Iran of engaging in an “unrelenting push toward nuclear weapons capability,” AFP reported. “It should come as no surprise that Iran has defied the board (of the IAEA) once again and announced it is producing uranium hexafluoride (gas), the material for centrifuge enrichment,” said department spokesman Kurtis Cooper. “The rush to convert 37 tons of yellowcake into feed stock for centrifuge enrichment has no peaceful justification,” Cooper said. “Iran has no operating nuclear power plants” (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 21). European Union officials warned yesterday that they would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, Reuters reported. The body however, remained committed to offering energy and other cooperation in exchange for Iran’s agreement to forego nuclear arms, said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. “I think we have to keep on doing the utmost in talking and dialogue. ... If we fail in that direction, we may have to resort to other mechanisms (such as taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council but) we prefer not to have to,” he said (Carol Giacomo, Reuters, Sept. 21). Libya, which last year renounced its WMD programs, Monday urged Iran to follow its example by heeding the IAEA call to stop uranium enrichment, Reuters reported. “As [IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei] said [yesterday], some things have to be fulfilled by Iran,” Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Matouq Matouq said after a meeting with U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Matouq cited Tripoli’s December 2003 decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction as an example for all. “Libya has set an example for everybody” (Reuters, Sept. 20). Iran has said the technologies it is developing, including uranium enrichment techniques and a heavy-water production facility, are for peaceful purposes. Aghazadeh said Monday that the heavy water project “is now going on.” He also announced that Russian Atomic Energy Agency Director Alexander Rumyantsev plans to visit Tehran “in the near future” to “work out and finalize” a fuel supply agreement for the Bushehr power reactor that Russia is helping to build in Iran. Russia has insisted that any agreement would require return of spent fuel to Russia, but the pact has been delayed for years. Financial and technical issues have caused the delay, Aghazadeh said Monday (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Sept. 21). Elsewhere, “war games” played by the CIA and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency led to the conclusion that attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities would not be effective in resolving the standoff with Tehran, Newsweek reported. “The war games were unsuccessful at preventing the conflict from escalating,” an unnamed Air Force source told the magazine (Barry/Ephron, Newsweek/MSNBC, Sept. 27).
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