IAEA board meets after Iran restarts nuclear work

By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) – The governors of the U.N. nuclear
watchdog hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday after Iran
resumed work at a uranium conversion plant, fanning Western
fears it may be seeking nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran had
restarted the nuclear activities mothballed under a deal with
the European Union’s three biggest powers, defying EU warnings
that Tehran could be referred to the U.N. Security Council for
possible sanctions.

The meeting was arranged after Iran said it would restart
the work, before Monday’s confirmation, but diplomats said the
board of governors would not likely call for a U.N. referral
just yet, giving both Iran and the European Union time for more
talks.

An EU3 diplomat, asked if the board would now change tack
and call for a referral, said, without elaborating: “Not yet,
but there will be new elements in the resolution to account for
the new things that have happened.”

France, Britain and Germany, the EU3, hope to persuade the
developing countries on the 35-member board meeting in Vienna
to unanimously back an EU-sponsored resolution urging Iran to
resume the suspension of all its uranium conversion activities.

The EU wants to convince Iran to abandon nuclear technology
that could be used to make bombs in exchange for political and
economic incentives, but Iran formally rejected the package.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for the peaceful
generation of electricity.

But EU diplomats said on Monday it would not be easy to
convince the whole board to issue a stern warning to Iran to
stop all uranium conversion and enrichment activity — which it
has the right to conduct under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Some of the developing countries, led by South Africa,
Brazil and Argentina, fear the attempt to force Iran to give up
sensitive nuclear activities could one day be used against
their own nuclear programs and could therefore object to it.

Iran, aware of its legal rights and the lack of unanimity
on the IAEA board, said it was unconcerned about the meeting’s
possible outcome.

VIOLATION

It says the EU proposal, which included offers of help to
develop civilian nuclear energy and in becoming a major transit
route for Central Asian oil, is unacceptable as it denies Iran
the right to produce its own nuclear fuel.

“Even if they issue a resolution tomorrow, since it would
have no legal basis and would violate the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, we won’t accept it and will carry on
with our work,” Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic
Energy Organization, told a reporters at Isfahan on Monday.

The IAEA said in a statement on Monday that Iran had
started feeding uranium ore concentrate into the first part of
the process line at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility.

“It should be noted that the sealed parts of the process
line remain intact,” the statement said.

It means Isfahan restarted the first stage of the nuclear
fuel cycle. Using the sealed parts of the plant would take the
process further, but still nowhere near the possibility of
making nuclear weapons.

To monitor Tehran’s compliance with the EU agreement,
struck in November 2004 in Paris, the IAEA sealed sensitive
equipment at Isfahan. EU diplomats said breaking any seals
would cross a red line that would eventually lead to a U.N.
referral.

Iran’s Saeedi said Tehran intended to break the IAEA seals
and restart work at other parts of the Isfahan plant on
Tuesday.

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

France, Britain and the United States condemned Iran’s
move.

Washington stopped short of immediately calling for the
Islamic Republic to be referred to the Security Council as it
has frequently threatened to do and said it would help the EU
revive their negotiations.

“In rejecting the EU3 offer and taking this step, this is
Iran thumbing its nose at a productive approach by the EU3,”
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. “We
continue to work with the EU3 in support of efforts to get this
process back on track.”

(Additional reporting by Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Washington,
London bureaux)