Iran says won’t enrich uranium while talks go on

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran will not enrich uranium for as long
as it is negotiating with the international community over its
disputed atomic programme, the country’s atomic chief said on
Saturday.

But Gholamreza Aghazadeh reiterated that Iran would never
give up nuclear fuel production.

“The Islamic Republic will not engage in activities such as
gas injection or enrichment during negotiations,” Aghazadeh was
quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

It was not immediately clear whether he was referring to
talks on Iran’s nuclear activities at the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) or to lower-level talks aimed at reviving
dialogue with the European Union.

Iran’s resumption earlier this year of uranium conversion,
the step before enrichment, led Britain, France and Germany to
cut off talks with the Islamic republic on halting its
sensitive nuclear work in exchange for political and economic
incentives.

Hossein Entezami, spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National
Security Council, told the ISNA students news agency that
Tehran would resume preliminary talks with the EU3 on
December21 in Vienna.

He said the Europeans would send a ministerial delegation
to meet Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, led by Ali Larijani.

In Vienna, headquarters of the IAEA, a Western diplomat
said December 21 had been set aside for “talks about talks” —
talks on how to get the previous negotiations going again.

He said the venue and agenda had not yet been finalized and
that “expectations are pretty low” given Iran’s insistence on
pursuing a full nuclear fuel production cycle on its soil.
Dates for meetings have been floated in the past and not
materialized.

In the conversion process, Iran converts uranium ore into
uranium hexafluoride gas. Aghazadeh made no mention of stopping
this work, though the EU countries have requested this as a
goodwill gesture and a basis for rebuilding dialogue.

Enrichment, the next step, involved pumping the gas into
centrifuges to produce enriched uranium.

Iran has not threatened an immediate start to enrichment
and many scientists believe Tehran could still be several years
from mastering centrifuge technology.

The IAEA board of governors last month decided not to refer
Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions to give
more time to a plan under which Russia would enrich Iran’s
uranium.

Aghazadeh repeated that this compromise would not work.

“The Islamic Republic has no doubt it will begin production
of nuclear fuel at some stage,” he said.

“The idea of producing uranium hexafluoride in Iran and
enriching it elsewhere is a failed idea,” he added.

The Western diplomat said Russia was not expected to be
part of the planned dialogue this month as earlier envisaged.

(Additional reporting by Mark Heinrich in Vienna)