VIENNA, May 12: Europe warned Iran on Thursday of ‘consequences’ if it broke its pledge to suspend nuclear fuel cycle activities, with Britain serving notice it would back hauling Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. The warning by Britain, France and Germany came in response to a statement by a top Iranian nuclear official earlier in the day that Tehran could ‘momentarily’ announce a resumption of ‘a noticeable part’ of uranium conversion work.

In a letter to Tehran, Britain, France and Germany warned that any violation of a Nov 2004 accord under which Iran froze its sensitive fuel cycle work — the focus of suspicions of a nuclear weapons drive — would have ‘consequences’ for the country. The letter also ‘proposes a four-way meeting in the near Future’.

In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed that the warning letter had been sent to Iran.

“We communicated very clearly to our Iranian interlocutors that that will have consequences if they decide to breach or to do something that for us is a breach of the agreements of November,” he told reporters.

“Let’s wait and see what actually happens,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a press conference when quizzed about a response to Iran’s threats.

“But we certainly will support referral to the United Nations Security Council if Iran breaches its undertakings and obligations.

“Quite how that will come about we have got to work out with our colleagues and allies,” Mr Blair added. “But those international rules are there for a reason, and they have to be adhered to.”

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier took the same line, saying: “We continue to hope that Iran will not take this step, the consequences of which it is well aware.”

Any decision to start converting uranium would ‘be counter to the Paris agreement and resolutions adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We want to get this position across to the authorities in Tehran,” he said.

“We hope the Iranians will reconsider,” an EU diplomat said, adding that Iran was certain to be referred to the Security Council if it did not.

Britain, Germany and France have offered Iran a package of incentives in return for ‘objective guarantees’ it will not develop weapons. But Iran, insisting on its ‘right’ to possess nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, warned the mounting pressure could undermine its commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — the cornerstone of the global effort to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

“We believe that a part of our nuclear activities must be restarted, but we are discussing the conditions and timing,” top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani told state television.

Mr Rowhani was also quoted as telling visiting Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Kislyak: “If Iran cannot exercise its rights within the framework of the NPT, it will no longer have any respect for this treaty.”

“The Iranian people,” he asserted, “will not accept giving in to force and are prepared to pay any price.

“Iran is not looking for a nuclear bomb, it wants to cooperate so that there are no international worries,” he repeated. Mr Solana said he did not want to be overly dramatic, but warned that if Iran restarted enrichment-related activities ‘the first thing we would like to do is call a meeting in Vienna to analyse the situation’.—AFP