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Iran embarks on uranium enrichment, set to reject IAEA deadline
By Siavosh Ghazi
Agence France-Presse
TEHRAN — A top Iranian diplomat has announced the Islamic republic has started uranium enrichment experiments and may cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), snubbing a UN ultimatum to the Islamic republic.
“The factory at Natanz has been in operation at an experimental level for several weeks,” Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in an interview published by Kayhan newspaper late Monday.
His comments came despite a Sept. 12 resolution passed by the IAEA that urged Iran to cease enrichment activities amid US allegations that the programme — part of a bid to generate nuclear power — is merely a cover for nuclear weapons development.
The enrichment could also complicate efforts by the IAEA to account for traces of enriched uranium they found in Natanz, 250kilometres south of Tehran and the site of 164 centrifuges, on a previous inspection — traces that Iran said were on imported equipment.
Salahi also asserted that while Iran would continue to work with the IAEA, it may reduce its level of cooperation with the agency.
“So far, on the direct orders of President (Mohammad) Khatami and to show good faith and transparency, we have cooperated beyond the accords and allowed the taking of samples and inspections of non-nuclear sites,” he said in an interview carried by state television.
Salehi said that in future Iran would go no further than its commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
After Iran was slapped with an Oct. 31 deadline to come clean over its nuclear programme, the Iranian foreign ministry said the level of the country's cooperation with the Vienna-based body was being reexamined.
In Vienna, diplomats said news of enrichment activities at Natanz could be a sign Tehran had no intention of fully respecting the resolution or deadline.
“This was expected to happen. It was not desired. It is not the best answer to what we have requested,” a Western diplomat close to the UN nuclear watchdog told AFP.
He said it showed Iran “might be restricted in their cooperation.”
The resolution demands Tehran answer all the agency's questions regarding its enrichment activities, provide unrestricted access to UN inspectors and a detailed list of its nuclear-related imports.
It also calls on Iran to sign an additional protocol to the NPT, which would give inspectors increased access. But pushed through after intensive lobbying by the United States, it has been greeted with widespread anger among officials in the Islamic republic.
So far Iran appears to be on track to rejecting the resolution, which could see the IAEA decide to refer the matter to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
However, there have been conflicting signals from a string of Iranian officials on how to respond to the IAEA demands, and Salahi's comments were no exception.
He said the IAEA is to send legal experts soon to Iran to continue discussions on the ambiguities of the additional protocol, but he said that “the additional protocol is not a good protocol and amounts to interference in the affairs of states.”
“But, in any case, the countries which have signed the NPT must sooner or later sign up because they (the IAEA and major powers) have planned things that way,” he said. “It's a bitter reality.”
Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister and now an adviser on international affairs to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, told state television Tuesday that the IAEA resolution was a “threat.”
“Studying the trends of the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past 25 years shows that the Islamic republic has never bowed to any threats and never accepted anything that has been imposed by another country or even any international organisation,” he said, concluding that “these threats will not have any effect.”
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the IAEA had “received nothing officially” from Tehran along the lines of Salehi's comments.
She said the agency was “moving forward with a very detailed and intense plan of work” and that the first IAEA investigation mission since the deadline was given earlier this month would be leaving for Iran on Friday.
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
By Siavosh Ghazi
Agence France-Presse , Jordan Times
TEHRAN — A top Iranian diplomat has announced the Islamic republic has started uranium enrichment experiments and may cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), snubbing a UN ultimatum to the Islamic republic.
“The factory at Natanz has been in operation at an experimental level for several weeks,” Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in an interview published by Kayhan newspaper late Monday.
His comments came despite a Sept. 12 resolution passed by the IAEA that urged Iran to cease enrichment activities amid US allegations that the programme — part of a bid to generate nuclear power — is merely a cover for nuclear weapons development.
The enrichment could also complicate efforts by the IAEA to account for traces of enriched uranium they found in Natanz, 250kilometres south of Tehran and the site of 164 centrifuges, on a previous inspection — traces that Iran said were on imported equipment.
Salahi also asserted that while Iran would continue to work with the IAEA, it may reduce its level of cooperation with the agency.
“So far, on the direct orders of President (Mohammad) Khatami and to show good faith and transparency, we have cooperated beyond the accords and allowed the taking of samples and inspections of non-nuclear sites,” he said in an interview carried by state television.
Salehi said that in future Iran would go no further than its commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
After Iran was slapped with an Oct. 31 deadline to come clean over its nuclear programme, the Iranian foreign ministry said the level of the country's cooperation with the Vienna-based body was being reexamined.
In Vienna, diplomats said news of enrichment activities at Natanz could be a sign Tehran had no intention of fully respecting the resolution or deadline.
“This was expected to happen. It was not desired. It is not the best answer to what we have requested,” a Western diplomat close to the UN nuclear watchdog told AFP.
He said it showed Iran “might be restricted in their cooperation.”
The resolution demands Tehran answer all the agency's questions regarding its enrichment activities, provide unrestricted access to UN inspectors and a detailed list of its nuclear-related imports.
It also calls on Iran to sign an additional protocol to the NPT, which would give inspectors increased access. But pushed through after intensive lobbying by the United States, it has been greeted with widespread anger among officials in the Islamic republic.
So far Iran appears to be on track to rejecting the resolution, which could see the IAEA decide to refer the matter to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
However, there have been conflicting signals from a string of Iranian officials on how to respond to the IAEA demands, and Salahi's comments were no exception.
He said the IAEA is to send legal experts soon to Iran to continue discussions on the ambiguities of the additional protocol, but he said that “the additional protocol is not a good protocol and amounts to interference in the affairs of states.”
“But, in any case, the countries which have signed the NPT must sooner or later sign up because they (the IAEA and major powers) have planned things that way,” he said. “It's a bitter reality.”
Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister and now an adviser on international affairs to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, told state television Tuesday that the IAEA resolution was a “threat.”
“Studying the trends of the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past 25 years shows that the Islamic republic has never bowed to any threats and never accepted anything that has been imposed by another country or even any international organisation,” he said, concluding that “these threats will not have any effect.”
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the IAEA had “received nothing officially” from Tehran along the lines of Salehi's comments.
She said the agency was “moving forward with a very detailed and intense plan of work” and that the first IAEA investigation mission since the deadline was given earlier this month would be leaving for Iran on Friday.
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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