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Iran to Resume Nuclear Work, Whatever Europe Says

Posted on: Friday, 29 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

The departing president of Iran says the country's senior officials have decided to resume activities at one of its nuclear sites no matter what a European proposal contains. The European plan is aimed at maintaining a suspension of Iran's nuclear program. President Mohammad Khatami made the comments during one of his last encounters with journalists as president.

He will be replaced Aug. 6 by the new conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said that Iran has no intention of making nuclear weapons but will not give up its right to have peaceful nuclear technology. Khatami said, "Whether the Europeans mention our right in their would-be proposals or not, we will definitely resume work" at the plant, which is in Isfahan.

"We prefer to do it with their agreement. If they don't agree, then the decision to start activities in Isfahan has already been made by the ruling system," he added.

According to Iran's Constitution, major state policies like decisions over nuclear activities are made by the country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The site in Isfahan, 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, south of Tehran, is a uranium conversion facility, where uranium ore, or yellowcake, is converted into gas. The gas can later be fed into centrifuges for enrichment, which is the process that leads to the material for making nuclear bombs or nuclear fuel. This process can be carried out in a plant in Natanz, 320 kilometers south of the capital. Iran contends that it wants to make its own nuclear fuel. Some Europeans have expressed concern after the election of Ahmadinejad, who was supported by conservative politicians who have criticized the decision to compromise over Iran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad made an unexpected visit to the two nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz last week.

Britain, Germany and France will present Iran with a set of proposals by early August in an attempt to persuade Iran to maintain the enrichment suspension.

Two senior diplomats involved in the talks, one British and the other French, confirmed that the proposal would be presented on schedule next week. Last November, Iran agreed to suspend its enrichment-related activities until the three European countries offered Iran economic, nuclear, political and security benefits. But it warned that it would not hold to its suspension if the talks took too long. A senior official said Tuesday that the European countries had until Monday to present a proposal that would enable Iran to produce nuclear fuel or Tehran would go its own way. "We have told Europeans that there should not be any delay in submitting their proposal," Ali Aghamohammadi, the spokesman for Iran's National Security Council, which has been responsible for the negotiations, told state television. "After Aug. 1 we will make our decision," he added.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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