Iran has stated it intends to resume uranium conversion at Isfahan. -- Ian Traynor of the Guardian (UK) reports that Iran has "delivered a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the seals at a uranium conversion plant near the town of Isfahan would be removed," characterizing the "angry letter" as "throwing down the gauntlet" and saying that there was "an air of panic yesterday that the talks could collapse sooner than expected."[1] -- The New York Times even suggested that the seals may already have been broken.[2] -- Reuters reported that only a few hours after President George W. Bush installed Iran hardliner John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. through a controversial recess appointment, White House press secretary Scott McClellan was saying: "If they’re not going to abide by their agreement and obligations, then we would have to look to the Security Council.”[3] -- Mohammed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called on Iran "to continue the negotiation process," Xinhuanet reported.[4] -- AP's Ali Akbar Dareini's reported that a spokesman for Iran said Tehran had agreed to ElBaradei's request for two days to get IAEA inspectors to Isfahan, but said an IAEA had denied any agreement for a two-day delay.[5] -- Dareini's report seemed to hint that some mistrust and lack of confidence existed at a number of levels, including among Iranian officials themselves. -- He quoted Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council: "Our people were worried that the government may have done a deal with the Europeans and given up the rights of the nation," and adding: "We will do the rest of the work in coordination with the Europeans." -- Dareini reported that "On state-run TV late Monday, Mohammadi said authorities would delay opening Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Conversion Facility for a week if it thought European negotiators would offer a proposal that left its rights to nuclear technology intact." -- An article posted by Xinhuanet, the Chinese state-run news agency, said that Aghamohammadi (as his name is also spelled) "stressed that resuming conversion activities 'had nothing to do with the uranium enrichment,' therefore was not at all in violation of the Paris Agreement between Iran and the EU in October 2004 under which Iran suspended all enrichment-related activities one month later to pave the way for negotiations. We will continue suspension of uranium enrichment and hope the door for dialogue will continue to remain open,' he said."[6] -- (The distinction between uranium enrichment and uranium conversion was not one that all reporters make; in fact, it may be said that the less sympathy there is for Iran, the more the distinction tends to be elided, as when Scott McClellan speaks of "uranium reprocessing enrichment activities," a term that has obviously been invented for this purpose.) -- In another article, Xinhuanet said that Iran's spokesperson had described the Iranian decision-making process as follows in an interview with the official IRNA news agency: "Iran's decision to resume nuclear activities at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility is a national decision adopted by the system's top officials in the presence of Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei. The officials present at that sensitive decision-making session included President Mohammad Khatami, President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former prime minister and Expediency Council member Mir-Hossein Moussavi. The heads of the system unanimously declared at that meeting that Aug. 1 would be Iran's unchangeable deadline, deciding that the current trend of nuclear talks is against the country's national interests."[7] -- (With respect to these articles from China, it is worth noting that on Nov. 17, 2004, Washington Post reporter Robin Wright wrote that "A major new alliance is emerging between Iran and China that threatens to undermine U.S. ability to pressure Tehran on its nuclear program, support for extremist groups and refusal to back Arab-Israeli peace efforts. -- The relationship has grown out of China's soaring energy needs . . . and Iran's growing appetite for consumer goods. . . . Beijing has also provided Iran with advanced military technology, including missile technology, U.S. officials say. . . . The Iran-China ties may be partly a response to the United States.") ...
1.
Foreign Affairs
IRAN TO REOPEN NUCLEAR PLANT AS DISPUTE ESCALATES
By Ian Traynor
Guardian (UK)
August 2, 2005
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1540836,00.html
Iran threw down the gauntlet to the west yesterday, telling U.N. nuclear inspectors it was breaking U.N. seals at a nuclear plant to resume part of its uranium enrichment program in breach of a pact with the EU. The enrichment program could be used to arm nuclear warheads.
In a high-risk move that could shatter two years of negotiations with the EU, trigger an emergency meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna, and see Tehran referred for penalties to the U.N. security council, Iran delivered a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the seals at a uranium conversion plant near the town of Isfahan would be removed to start turning raw uranium into a gaseous form that can then be processed into nuclear fuel.
The move comes on the eve of the inauguration of a new president, the reputed hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose unexpected election is a cause for concern in both the EU and Washington.
Under an agreement last November with Britain, France, and Germany -- negotiating with Iran on behalf of the EU and with U.S. backing -- Tehran pledged to freeze all uranium enrichment activities pending the outcome of talks.
Later this week the EU troika is to present detailed proposals offering Iran security and military guarantees against attack as well as trade benefits and supplies of technology and nuclear fuel for a civil nuclear program, provided Iran forfeits its right to enrich uranium. It was unclear why Tehran opted to jeopardize the potential breakthrough at the last minute.
Yesterday's calculated escalation of the dispute alarmed western diplomats and left the Europeans scrambling to decide whether to break off almost two years of delicate talks with Iran. "It will be very difficult not to respond to this," a European diplomat said. Another diplomat following the negotiations said: "It's part of the normal pattern of Iranian behavior, stretch things out and then pull back at the last minute."
The angry letter to the IAEA from the Iranians accused the Europeans of orchestrating "prolonged and fruitless" negotiations and said the EU offer to be tabled this week would be "totally unacceptable."
The U.N. inspectors played for time, telling Iran that they would need a week to install monitoring equipment at the Isfahan plant before Iranian operations could resume. In Tehran last night, it was reported that the Iranians agreed not to a week's delay, but to a two-day wait. Iran maintains that the uranium conversion work at Isfahan does not constitute uranium enrichment, an argument dismissed by the Europeans on the grounds that the only purpose of the converted uranium gas is for later enrichment into fuel for nuclear power stations or into fissile material for nuclear warheads.
While diplomats and analysts ultimately expect the EU-Iran negotiations to fail, there was an air of panic yesterday that the talks could collapse sooner than expected. Ambassadors and senior officials in Vienna were cancelling and rescheduling holidays yesterday on the assumption that there would be an emergency IAEA meeting which could send the dispute to the UN security council.
The IAEA chief, Mohammed ElBaradei, appealed to Iran not to imperil the negotiations with the EU "at this critical stage."
For two years the Europeans have resisted U.S. calls to take the row to the security council but have promised the Americans to end that resistance if the talks break down. The U.S. and the Europeans are convinced Iran is embarked on a clandestine nuclear bomb project. Enriching uranium is the main route to the bomb.
2.
IRAN SAYS IT WILL BREAK U.N. SEALS PLACED AT A NUCLEAR PLANT
By Nazila Fathii
New York Times
August 2, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/international/middleeast/02iran.html
TEHRAN -- Defying the warning of European leaders, Iran said Monday that it was removing the seals placed by the United Nations nuclear agency at one of its nuclear sites to restart activities there.
European diplomats said that if Iran did go ahead and resume the nuclear activities, then they would have little choice but to ask for the agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to place the issue before the United Nations Security Council for possible political and economic sanctions.
A senior Iranian official, Ali Aghamohammadi, said technicians were going to break the seals to the uranium ore conversion plant in Isfahan on Monday afternoon in the presence of the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who are currently in Iran, the IRNA news agency reported.
By the end of the day, however, it could not be determined whether Iran had actually broken the seals.
In Berlin, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a news briefing that the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, had warned that the decision was a miscalculation by Iran.
In a strongly worded statement, the British Foreign Office said that if Iran were to act on its threat and resume nuclear activities, negotiations between Iran and Europe would probably be halted.
Iran agreed nine months ago to freeze all its enrichment-related activities for as long as talks with Germany, France, Britain and the European Union continued. The United States maintains, and the European countries had come to agree, that Iran intends to make nuclear weapons. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes.
Mr. Aghamohammadi said Iran's decision to restart a nuclear facility was made after the European foreign ministers notified Iran in a letter that a proposal to Iran concerning incentives for it to permanently dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program, possibly including nuclear fuel and a trade package, would be made in Paris on Aug. 30, although Iran said its deadline had been the end of July.
European diplomats said Monday that they had wanted to wait to present a proposal until after the new Iranian president is sworn in on Wednesday, and the French Foreign Ministry said in a briefing on Monday that the proposals would be presented before Sunday.
Iran says it is keeping its freeze on another, more advanced, process in the program to enrich uranium, which can lead to making nuclear fuel for power plants, or if enriched to high levels, for making nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency had urged Iran not to remove the agency's seals from any nuclear equipment at Isfahan until it dispatches more inspectors and installs additional surveillance equipment. An agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said Monday that the process could take a week to 10 days.
"We would want to account for every gram of nuclear material," she said. "We would want to be certain that no material is being diverted."
Ms. Fleming denied a statement by an Iranian government spokesman that the agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, had agreed to make the inspectors and equipment available in two days. "There's been no such shortening of the time period the I.A.E.A. would need," she said.
While the agency's response to Iran was cautiously written focusing mostly on technical matters, Ms. Fleming said the agency considered Iran's voluntary suspension of uranium activities to be "essential" in its effort to solve the riddles in Iran's past nuclear activity. Suspending enrichment freezes a nuclear site, she said, and makes it easier to investigate. Monitoring the process would also use up the time of inspectors, who could focus on other elements of the nuclear program.
In Tehran, Mr. Aghamohammadi said the decision to resume work was made in a meeting by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; the departing president, Mohammad Khatami; the president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and other senior leaders.
At the conversion plant in Isfahan, the uranium ore known as yellowcake is turned into UF6, or uranium hexafluoride gas, which can later be fed into centrifuges to be enriched.
Mr. Aghamohammadi said Monday that the UF6 gas produced at the plant in Isfahan would be stored under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The products made of UF6 will be given to a third country in return for yellowcake, he added.
"We will keep the suspension on enrichment and we hope we can continue our negotiations with Europe," Mr. Aghamohammadi said.
"We hope our decision would be interpreted with good will," he said, adding that the country's national pride had been hurt after its nuclear work was stopped under pressure for two years.
--Mark Landler contributed reporting from Berlin for this article, and Graham Bowley from London.
3.
U.S. WARNS IRAN AGAINST RESUMING ENRICHMENT
Reuters
August 1, 2005
http://www.dawn.com/2005/08/02/top7.htm
WASHINGTON -- The United States warned on Monday that it would take Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if Tehran resumes sensitive nuclear work that can be a key step toward building an atomic bomb. “If they’re not going to abide by their agreement and obligations, then we would have to look to the Security Council,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said of the possible resumption of uranium enrichment by Iran.
Iran handed over a letter on Sunday to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that formally notified the U.N. watchdog of the imminent resumption of uranium ore conversion -- the precursor to enrichment in the nuclear fuel cycle. The move, which jeopardized months of tortuous talks with Britain, France, and Germany, immediately aroused expressions of grave concern from the international community.
Iran complained that Europe has dallied too long in coming up with concrete proposals for a nuclear cooperation deal, adding that it had reason to believe that the eventual offer would be ‘totally unacceptable.’
“Iran made an agreement, the Paris Agreement. They agreed to abide by the Paris Agreement which called for Iran to suspend their uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities while the negotiations were ongoing,” Mr. McClellan said.
“The Europeans, along with the United States, believe that Iran should adhere to the Paris Agreement and continue to work with the Europeans to resolve this issue,” he said. “We’ve made clear that if Iran’s going to violate its agreement and restart uranium reprocessing enrichment activities, then we would have to look to the next step, and we would be talking with our European friends about that next step,” Mr McClellan said.
His comments came hours after U.S. President George Bush appointed John Bolton -- who has taken a hard line on Iran’s nuclear programs -- to be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
A delegation of U.S. lawmakers who were visiting the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, said that Iran’s move raises concerns about its intentions.
“There is no reason why they should not have waited just one more week for the EU proposal. This certainly raises serious concerns about Iran’s intention,” said Congressman Peter King.
The IAEA also urged Iran not to resume its nuclear work.
“I call on Iran to continue the negotiation process with the E3/EU and not to take any action that might prejudice the process at this critical stage,” IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement.
4.
IAEA URGES IRAN NOT TO TAKE UNILATERAL ACTION
Xinhuanet
August 1, 2005
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/02/content_3298654.htm
VIENNA -- The U.N. nuclear watchdog urged Iran on Monday to continue negotiations with the European Union and not to take any unilateral action on the resumption of nuclear activity.
"I call on Iran to continue the negotiation process" with the EU, said Mohammed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a statement.
"I also call on Iran not to take any unilateral action that could undermine the agency inspection process at a time when the agency is making steady progress in resolving outstanding issues," ElBaradei added.
He said the European trio -- Britain, France and Germany -- will hand over promised comprehensive proposals within days for nuclear, economic, security, and political cooperation provided Iran ends all uranium enrichment-related activities.
Iran halted uranium conversion and enrichment last November. Tehran says its nuclear program aims only at producing energy.
Earlier Monday, Iran announced it would remove the seal on the uranium conversion facilities in Isfahan after the deadline for the European Union to submit its proposal on Iran's controversial nuclear program was ignored by the EU.
Uranium conversion, a preparatory step for enrichment, means the process by which the uranium ore nicknamed "yellowcake" is turned into uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6).
UF6 can be processed in thousands of connected centrifuges to yield enriched uranium, which can be used to generate electricity and build nuclear weapons.
5.
Breaking News
International
IRAN TO DELAY REOPENING NUCLEAR PLANT
By Ali Akbar Dareini
Associated Press
August 2, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5183074,00.html
ISFAHAN -- Iran threatened to reopen its nuclear processing plant here Monday, but later agreed to a two-day delay after receiving a request from the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency.
Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the Associated Press that International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei asked Tehran for a "maximum of two days" to send its inspectors to Iran's nuclear facility where they can oversee the dismantling of U.N. seals.
But the IAEA denied setting a two-day deadline, saying more time is needed to oversee the plant's resumption of uranium processing, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.
"We have sent a letter to Iran indicating that it would take at least a week to get our surveillance equipment and other required measures in place," she said.
Earlier, Mohammadi had said Iranian technicians would break the seals and restart nuclear processing on Monday.
Mohammadi said the combination of restraint and resolve toward restarting uranium processing showed the government's intention not to squander Iran's fundamental right to nuclear power, while preserving close ties to Europe.
"Our people were worried that the government may have done a deal with the Europeans and given up the rights of the nation," Mohammadi told the AP. "We will do the rest of the work in coordination with the Europeans."
On state-run TV late Monday, Mohammadi said authorities would delay opening Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Conversion Facility for a week if it thought European negotiators would offer a proposal that left its rights to nuclear technology intact.
Earlier in the day, ElBaradei warned Iran "not to take any action that might prejudice the process at this critical stage."
EU negotiators have said they are mere days from delivering a package of incentives addressing security and political, economic and nuclear issues.
"I also call on Iran not to take any unilateral action that could undermine the agency inspection process at a time when the agency is making steady progress in resolving outstanding issues," ElBaradei said.
Iranian officials had signaled an intensifying impatience with the slow pace of negotiations with Europe, and an incoming conservative administration in Tehran has showed signs of wanting to harden the country's stance.
Mohammadi said authorities still plan to remove the U.N.'s seals on the machinery, in the Isfahan plant, opening the way for the long-stalled conversion of uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, into uranium gas, the feedstock for enrichment.
Iranian officials made clear they were still holding back from restarting most of their suspended program. The country has no plans to reopen the plant in Natanz, where it could begin actual enrichment by injecting uranium gas into centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
Israeli officials warned Monday that unless the international community steps up pressure on Iran, the Islamic state will develop nuclear weapons.
"If the Americans, Europeans, and Russians will not take Iran to the (U.N.) Security Council and put real pressure on them, they will produce nuclear capabilities," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Israel has repeatedly warned that Iran, which already posses a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Europe, Israel, and U.S. forces in the Middle East, is an existential threat to the Jewish state.
In its letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Tehran regime said the EU proposal sought to restrict the country's peaceful development of nuclear power while falling short on economic, technological, and nuclear cooperation. It said the EU's "security guarantee" that Iran won't be invaded was also lacking.
Iran's announcement brought sharp responses from European officials who called on the Iranians to respect the terms of the Paris Agreement that meant the nuclear program stayed frozen until negotiations were finished.
Mohammadi said some IAEA inspectors have already arrived in Isfahan. Others are expected to arrive to install more monitoring cameras to record the resumption of work.
U.S. officials claim the Iranian nuclear program is designed to produce weapons. Iran insists electricity is its sole aim. Iran maintains its suspension of uranium enrichment in November was voluntary, giving it the right to resume the activities.
Iran's moves could send it before the United Nations Security Council to face sanctions, as previously called for by the United States.
European diplomats said Sunday that if Isfahan were restarted, an emergency International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting would set a deadline for the Iranians to stop enrichment activities.
If such a deadline were not met, a Security Council referral was a likely next step, the officials said.
Iran's actions could also trigger a short-term economic penalty. The European Union which said Tehran's enrichment steps would damage EU-Iran trade talks.
Germany, which along with Britain and France have been leading U.S.-backed EU negotiations, said Monday that European negotiators still plan to submit their proposal for Iran's atomic program "in a few days."
The proposal, which was delayed a week until Aug. 7, includes nuclear fuel, technology, other aid and "security guarantees" that Iran won't be invaded if it permanently halts uranium enrichment and related activities, European and Iranian officials confirmed.
6.
News
IRAN POISED TO RESUME URANIUM CONVERSION
Xinhuanet
August 1, 2005
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/02/content_3297900.htm
TEHRAN -- Iran said on Monday it would remove the seal on the uranium conversion facilities in Isfahan after Tehran's deadline for the European Union to submit its proposal on Iran's controversial nuclear program was ignored by the EU.
The spokesman for Iran's supreme national security council and senior nuclear negotiator Ali Aghamohammadi said Sunday that Tehran would resume the conversion if the EU failed to present its proposal before the deadline of 5:00 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Majlis (parliament) Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel told reporters Monday that Iran extended the deadline for 24 hours until 17:00 (1230 GMT) Monday.
Britain, France and Germany who represent the EU in nuclear talks with Iran promised in late May to hand over Tehran a package of comprehensive proposals in two months.
Aghamohammadi said Saturday that Iran turned down a demand made by the ambassadors of the EU trio to postpone the presentation of the proposal until Aug. 7.
In fact, Tehran was pressing the EU to secure Iran's legal right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear program which the West suspects could be used to build an atom bomb but Tehran insists is for entirely peaceful purposes.
Iran's outgoing President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami has threatened that Tehran is determined to resume some sensitive nuclear activities no matter what proposal the EU will present.
Aghamohammadi said Monday that Iran has sent a letter to the U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA to inform it of the resumption of the conversion activities in the central city Isfahan.
He announced that the seals on the Isfahan facility would be removed later Monday under "full supervision of the IAEA experts and all of the uranium conversion products in Isfahan would also be kept under the agency's inspection."
He stressed that resuming conversion activities "had nothing to do with the uranium enrichment," therefore was not at all in violation of the Paris Agreement between Iran and the EU in October 2004 under which Iran suspended all enrichment-related activities one month later to pave the way for negotiations.
"We will continue suspension of uranium enrichment and hope the door for dialogue will continue to remain open," he said.
The three EU powers has been persuading Iran to give up uranium enrichment in return for political and economic incentives.
They have threatened to back the U.S. demand to refer Iran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council if the Islamic Republic resumed enrichment-related activities during negotiations.
Uranium conversion, a preparatory step for the enrichment, means the process that uranium ore nicknamed "yellowcake" is turned into uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6). UF6 can be processed in thousands of connected centrifuges to yield enriched uranium, which can be used to generate electricity as well as build nuclear weapons.
7.
Breaking News
RESUMPTION OF NUCLEAR ACTIVITY A COLLECTIVE DECISION: IRAN
Xinhuanet
August 1, 2005
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/02/content_3297814.htm
TEHRAN -- A top Iranian nuclear negotiator said late Monday that Tehran's decision to resume uranium conversion activities was a collective decision.
"Iran's decision to resume nuclear activities at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility is a national decision adopted by the system's top officials in the presence of Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei," Ali Aghamohammadi, spokesman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in an interview with the official IRNA news agency.
"The officials present at that sensitive decision-making session included President Mohammad Khatami, President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former prime minister and Expediency Council member Mir-Hossein Moussavi," he said.
"The heads of the system unanimously declared at that meeting that Aug. 1 would be Iran's unchangeable deadline, deciding that the current trend of nuclear talks is against the country's national interests," Aghamohammadi added.
Aghamohammadi announced earlier Monday that Iran would remove the seals on a uranium conversion site in the central city of Isfahan under full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency experts on Monday evening.
Iran took the step towards resuming uranium conversion activities after the EU failed to present its promised proposal to solve the Iranian nuclear issue before 17:00 local time (12:30 GMT) on Monday, a deadline set by Tehran.
He also said that Ahmadinejad would never change Iran's nuclear policy after he was sworn in on Wednesday.
"This issue is independent from the change of governments. It is the Iranian nation's decision," he said.
"Macro-scale decisions of the system would be made by the country's top officials, just as always, and they would not be subject to drastic changes with coming to power of a new president," Aghamohammadi stressed.
The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Tehran as politically motivated.
Iran suspended all uranium enrichment related activities in November 2004 to pave the way for talks with the EU on the future of its controversial nuclear program.
The EU has been persuading Iran to permanently halt uranium enrichment in return for political and economic incentives, but Iran insists that it will never give up its legal right to peaceful nuclear activities.
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