U.N. inspectors to oversee Iran nuclear restart

By Parisa Hafezi

ISFAHAN, Iran (Reuters) – U.N. inspectors have arrived at a
uranium conversion plant in Iran to install surveillance
equipment and oversee the removal of seals as Tehran prepared
to resume work there, an Iranian official said on Monday.

Such a move would bring the Islamic state into
confrontation with the European Union, which has warned Iran it
faces being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible
sanctions if it restarts the plant near the central Iranian
city of Isfahan.

“The agency technicians have arrived at the uranium
conversion facility to install surveillance cameras,” the
senior official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“Later, the seals will be removed,” he added.

He did not specify when this would take place. The
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear
watchdog, has said it would take until mid-week to install
equipment at the plant to monitor Iran’s activities.

A Reuters journalist, among a small group of local and
foreign reporters invited to visit the plant on Monday, said it
was surrounded by dozens of anti-aircraft batteries, patrolled
by heavy security and surrounded by barbed wire fences.

It is located in a dry industrial area about 20 km (12.5
miles) southeast of Isfahan.

Iran denies U.S. accusations that its nuclear program is a
front for bomb-making. It says it needs to develop nuclear
power as an alternative energy source to meet booming
electricity demand and preserve its oil and gas reserves for
export.

It has offered to export the uranium hexafluoride produced
at Isfahan to allay Western concerns that it could be enriched
into bomb-grade material.

EMERGENCY MEETING

Britain, Germany and France have called an emergency
meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors for Tuesday to warn Iran
not to resume work at Isfahan.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Friday
called on Iran to “listen to reason” and said if Iran resumed
its nuclear activities, “the international community will
surely bring the issue to the Security Council.”

Iran on Saturday rejected a package of economic and
political incentives presented by the EU’s big three countries
aimed at persuading Tehran to scrap nuclear fuel work for good.

Iranian officials said the EU proposal, which included
offers of help to develop civilian nuclear energy and in
becoming a major transit route for Central Asian oil, was
unacceptable because it denied Iran the right to produce its
own nuclear fuel for power reactors.

However, Iran has so far been careful to stress that it is
not restarting work on the most sensitive element of the
nuclear fuel cycle — uranium enrichment, a process that can be
used to make reactor fuel or atomic warheads.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday Tehran had nothing
to fear from referral of its case to the Security Council.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran’s nuclear program for
three years after an exiled Iranian opposition group revealed
the existence of undisclosed facilities there.

While the IAEA has highlighted numerous failures by Iran to
report potentially weapons-related activities, it has found no
“smoking gun” that would confirm U.S. suspicions that it is
secretly trying to make bombs.