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European nations warn Iran not to resume nuclear activities
France, Britain and Germany have warned Iran they will break off talks and join Washington in seeking UN Security Council action if Tehran makes good on its threats to resume atomic work, European Union officials said on Thursday.
The foreign ministers of the European Union’s three biggest powers sent a strongly worded letter to Hassan Rohani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, warning that resuming potentially arms-related nuclear work “would bring the negotiating process to an end,” an EU diplomat quoted the letter as saying.
“The consequences could only be negative for Iran,” it said.
On Thursday night the head of Iran’s nuclear agency said it may postpone resumption of uranium reprocessing after increasing European pressure not to end its suspension of a program that officials fear could result in a nuclear bomb.
“No certain day is fixed for resumption of reprocessing. It is possible to postpone it some days,” Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s Atomic Organization, told the Tehran state-run television in a live roundtable discussion.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon told Army Radio on Thursday that Israel knows how to protect itself against a potential Iranian threat.
“Iran is the central proponent of terrorism and Islamic fanaticism and it has a non-conventional leadership that is liable to develop non-conventional weaponry,” Ya’alon said. “Israel, therefore, needs to know how to defend itself against every threat and will always know how to do so.”
Earlier in the day Rohani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said Tehran would resume some nuclear activities because it cannot continue nuclear negotiations with Europeans.
“Continuation of negotiations in their present format is not possible for us,” Rohani told state-run television, saying the talks were not balanced and were costly for Iran.
“The basic point that the Islamic Republic of Iran will resume part of its nuclear activities in the near future is definite,” Rohani had said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair spelled out the potential consequences, telling reporters: “We certainly will support referral to the United Nations Security Council if Iran breaches its obligations and undertakings.”
The United States believes Iran’s nuclear energy program is a front to develop atomic weapons and has been pressing for Iran’s case to be sent to the 15-member UN council for possible economic sanctions and other actions.
The EU shares U.S. suspicions but has offered incentives to try to get Tehran to give up its atomic fuel program, which Iran insists is only for nuclear power plants, not for arms.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier also urged Iran to maintain its voluntary freeze on enrichment-related activities.
“We continue to hope that Iran will not go ahead with this move, for which it is aware of the consequences,” Barnier told the French Senate upper house of parliament.
The EU letter proposed “ministerial level talks” between the Iranians and Europeans within the next two weeks to break the impasse and avoid a crisis, EU diplomats said.
Warning from Iran
Iran refuses to give up uranium fuel production, which it says is its sovereign right. Fed up with the slow pace of talks, Iran has informed the EU that time is running out and it will soon resume parts of its uranium enrichment program.
The new EU warning may have had an immediate effect. Officials close to the issue said Tehran might give talks with the EU one last chance rather than go ahead with plans to break UN seals and restart part of its nuclear fuel program.
Only hours earlier, a diplomat close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters the UN agency was expecting a letter from Iran saying Tehran would restart part of its nuclear fuel program.
Tehran’s chief delegate to the IAEA, Sirus Naseri, arrived in Vienna on Wednesday with a letter for IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, but he may not deliver it, diplomats said.
One official said the Iranians had held meetings with the Europeans in recent days, fostering new hope for negotiations that began in November after Tehran agreed to suspend all activities linked to the enrichment of uranium.
But Rohani said Tehran would no longer feel bound by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if it was denied the right to pursue a full civilian nuclear energy program.
“If Iran cannot use its legitimate rights in the framework of the NPT, it will no longer have respect for the treaty,” the semi-official ISNA students news agency quoted Rohani as telling visiting Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Kislyak.
A senior diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters he was convinced Iran would not resume any enrichment activities until well after the country’s June 17 presidential election.
It is no accident the latest crisis in the EU-Iran talks comes a month before the election, European diplomats said.
Political analysts say leading presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose allies are leading the nuclear negotiations with the EU, stands to benefit from an escalation in international tensions.
Aides of the influential former president portray him as an experienced crisis solver and deal maker who could resolve the standoff. On Wednesday, Rafsanjani backed negotiations with the EU and said Iran must be patient.
