VIENNA, Feb 13: Diplomats said on Monday Iran had resumed some uranium enrichment work in defiance of a vote to engage the UN Security Council. Iran said earlier in the day that it would restart enrichment, voluntarily suspended for two years while it was in talks with European Union powers which collapsed last month, by early March.
Tehran also announced it had put off talks due this week on a Russian proposal to avert a Security Council showdown by enriching Iranian uranium on its soil to prevent shadowy diversions to weapons-making. However, Moscow said it was prepared to go ahead with the talks on Thursday as planned.
Diplomats in missions dealing with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna said Iran had resumed some uranium purification activity at its Natanz plant late on Sunday.
An official in the Iranian capital would only say that ‘Iran was supposed to resume uranium enrichment on Sunday or Monday’, without confirming whether the process had started.
If confirmed, Iran’s move would signal a determination to overcome any action to restrain its nuclear project after a Feb 4 vote by the IAEA to report Tehran to the Security Council, which could consider sanctions.
Iran retaliated for the decision by IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors by halting short-notice inspections, a crucial tool in inquiries to assess whether Iran’s nuclear programme is wholly peaceful or not, and vowing to enrich uranium once again.
Iranian leaders say they are confident Western efforts to clip Tehran’s nuclear wings will run out of steam because of international dependence on Iranian oil exports.
“Indications that they have resumed enrichment would explain why they’ve stalled the Russia talks slated this week,” said an EU diplomat.
AHMADINEJAD BLAMES US: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States for tension with his country.
“They choose to threaten us and make false allegations and they want to impose their lifestyle on others and this is not acceptable,” he was quoted as saying by USA Today newspaper.
“The way they have treated our people here has left no ground for talks,” he said. “... They think they can solve everything with a bomb. The time for such things is long over.”
TALKS PUT OFF: A government spokesman said in Tehran on Monday that the talks scheduled for Thursday to discuss a proposal by Moscow to process nuclear fuel for Iranian reactors on Russian soil, had been postponed.
“Talks with Russia have not been cancelled, but the date should be discussed,” Gholamhossein Elham told a weekly news conference.
He said the proposal was acceptable only if it supplemented enrichment facilities in Iran. “The government insists on enriching uranium on Iran’s soil and the proposal should be adjusted based on the new circumstances.”
Russia’s RIA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Alexei Sazonov as saying Iran had not notified Moscow of a postponement and it was ‘premature’ to talk about one.
“Quite aside from annoying the Russians, this step takes away the argument of Iran’s friends to delay any Council action. And by relaunching enrichment, Iran is embarking on a course towards confrontation in Council,” a Western diplomat said.—Reuters
