Iran resumes nuclear research, angering West

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran removed U.N. seals at its Natanz
uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear fuel research on
Tuesday, drawing sharp Western criticism but no immediate
threats of punitive action.

Tehran denies wanting nuclear technology for anything but a
civilian energy program aimed at satisfying the Islamic
Republic’s booming demand for electricity.

But the United States and the European Union doubt that
Iran’s atomic ambitions are entirely peaceful and are likely to
ask the U.N. Security Council, which can impose economic
sanctions, to take up the matter, Western diplomats said.

Western powers had called on Iran to refrain from any work
that could help it develop atomic weapons.

“Iran’s nuclear research centers have restarted their
activities,” Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic
Energy Organization, told state television.

He said work at the research facilities would be under the
supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

Saeedi told a news conference Iran had come to an agreement
with the IAEA on what work Tehran would do. He gave no details.

The IAEA in Vienna confirmed Iran was removing U.N. seals
at Natanz, an underground plant in central Iran that Tehran
concealed from U.N. inspectors until an Iranian exile group
revealed its existence in August 2002.

“The Iranians have begun removing seals at Natanz in the
presence of IAEA inspectors,” said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa
Fleming.

STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

Gregory Schulte, Washington’s ambassador to the IAEA, said
Iran’s move showed its “disdain for international concerns.”

“The regime continues to choose confrontation over
cooperation,” he said in a statement.

The European Union was quick to denounce the resumption of
research, which a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana labeled “a step in the wrong direction.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said German
diplomats would meet Solana and British and French envoys in
Berlin this week to decide “whether there is now any basis for
further negotiations with Iran.”

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said: “There was no
good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its
intentions are truly peaceful.”

Russia, which is helping Iran build a nuclear power station
at the southern port of Bushehr, said Tehran should abide by
international commitments and that its decision to resume
research caused concern.

European diplomats have said they would seek an emergency
meeting of the IAEA to consider referring Tehran to the
Security Council for failing to allay fears it is seeking an
atom bomb.

It is unclear if Iran will simply test equipment or
actually produce small amounts of nuclear fuel in a laboratory.
The IAEA did not specify any of the work the Iranians were
undertaking.

One EU and one non-EU diplomat said Iran was planning to
get 164 centrifuges running at Natanz to try to master the
technique of producing nuclear fuel. Centrifuges enrich uranium
by spinning it at supersonic speed.

However, such a small cascade would take many years to
produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a single weapon.

If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used in power
stations such as the one at Bushehr. If enriched further, it
can be used in atomic warheads.

An intelligence source said Iran intended to feed uranium
hexafluoride (UF6) into the cascade at Natanz soon, but had not
informed the IAEA about this.

A Western diplomat close to the IAEA said agency inspectors
were at Natanz and would report anything the Iranians did there
to the IAEA board of governors. “The facility is fully
safeguarded,” the diplomat said.

However, Saeedi denied any suggestion that Iran was
resuming the production of nuclear fuel at the Natanz facility.

“There is a difference between research and producing
nuclear fuel … The production of nuclear fuel is still under
suspension,” he told the news conference.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Berlin, Mark
John in Brussels, Madeline Chambers in London, Kerstin Gehmlich
in Paris, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Guo Shipeng in
Beijing)