Iran nuclear crisis deepening?
Modher Amin
August 12, 2005
As diplomatic tensions mount over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Tehran defiance increased over the past two weeks.
In a latest show of the kind, the Islamic state rejected a resolution tabled by the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- and adopted by the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday, calling on the country to halt its sensitive uranium processing activities.
Tehran had upped the stakes in the crisis a day earlier by removing seals on a uranium conversion plant in the central city of Isfahan, where uranium ore is turned into gas as a precursor to enrichment.
The Isfahan plant is Iran's main uranium conversion facility. Conversion is an early stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, turning raw uranium -- known as yellowcake -- into the feedstock for enriched uranium.
Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel, while further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic weapons.
The reopening, which brought to an end almost nine months of frustration for technicians and the country, gave the facility full operational capacity after Iran on Monday ended its voluntary shutdown which had been put into effect in November 2004.
"The Board of Governors expresses serious concern at the 1 August 2005 notification to the IAEA that Iran had decided to resume the uranium conversion activities at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan..." part of the resolution said.
Adopted by consensus by the body's 35-nation board, the resolution also "urges Iran to re-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities including the production of feed material...."
However, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, was quick to reject the agency's declaration, calling it a "politically motivated" move "approved under the pressures of the United States and its allies and is void of any legal or rational basis, and (therefore it) is unacceptable."
"By ratifying this resolution, the three European states have acted contrary to the spirit of safeguards and negotiations conducted during the past two years as well as the Tehran-Paris agreement," he said, reiterating, "Iran will never give up its legitimate rights and still insists on mastering civil nuclear technology."
The board's scheduled meeting is Sept. 19, but the resolution asked the director general to provide a comprehensive report on Iran's implementation of nuclear safeguards by Sept. 3. Diplomats in Vienna, home to the IAEA's headquarters, hinted that insufficient progress by that date could mean the board would consider referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.
Thursday's resolution, however, stopped short of calling for the matter to be taken to the U.N., given concerns such a move could backfire by hardening Iran's already intransigent position. Some countries even fear a too heavy-handed approach could isolate Iran, as was the case with North Korea.
Iranian officials have said that Tehran would "resist" mounting international pressure and were unworried by threats of sanctions. They argue that, under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, their country has the legal right to carry out the nuclear fuel cycle.
"If one day, Iran's case is referred to the U.N. Security Council, we are not worried," Asefi said. "If the Europeans choose this way, it's up to them to see if it is to their benefit or not."
Despite its defying stance Iran says it is still interested in holding negotiations with the EU, but says it must have the right to develop its own nuclear fuel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who assumed office last week, said Iran had done nothing unlawful by resuming uranium conversion.
"We are ready for talks, and negotiations have never been interrupted by us," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
The newly installed president said his country had initiatives and new proposals which he plans to put forward once he has formed his cabinet.
In Washington, President George W. Bush said Iran's willingness to return to talks was a "positive sign", but added that he was still "deeply suspicious" that Iran was intent on developing a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, Iran's chief negotiator at the IAEA talks, Cyrus Nasseri, angrily criticized the resolution, saying, "Iran will not bend. Iran will be a nuclear fuel producer and supplier within a decade."
He also warned the U.S. and the EU against referring Tehran to the U.N. Security Council.
"I think that would be a grave miscalculation by the U.S. and particularly by Europe to move towards the path of confrontation," Nasseri said. "There is no legal base whatsoever to go to the Security Council. If it is, it is by political choosing and it will be [a] big, big mistake."
The Iranian government Monday replaced its chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, with Ali Larijani, a conservative former head of state broadcasting who is known to have close ties with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The appointment is being seen as a hardening of Iran's position.
In a weekly prayers ceremony Friday, Iran's former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, dismissed the resolution as "very tyrannical," with calling the IAEA's move as a "highly important event" that "will put us and the region possibly under new conditions, opening a new chapter in our revolution."
He warned the West against taking Iran for Iraq or Libya, saying, "You might drag us on and not let Iran tread the path to development of knowledge but you are mistaken."
Rafsanjani, who heads the powerful arbitrative Expediency Council, did not hide his surprise over the wide support the resolution gained during the last session of the IAEA's emergency meeting on Thursday. He criticized certain members of the governing board for turning back to Iran and sparing support for Tehran.
"It's highly surprising and amazing some countries initially supported us and even superficially delayed the meeting for two days but then, through a consensus, adopted what the three European states and the U.S. wanted and nobody opposed."
The EU and the U.S. want Iran to permanently abandon its nuclear program, which they suspect is a cover for a nuclear weapons program, in exchange for nuclear, economic and political incentives. The "generous" concessions, as they were referred to by some European diplomats, were dismissed by Iranian officials as "insulting", "exchange of pearl for candies" and a package of "lollipops." The offer mainly included guaranteed shipments of nuclear fuel, a promised trade agreement with the European Union and help in getting into the World Trade Organization.
Iran, under international pressure, suspended uranium conversion and enrichment activities last year to allow for talks but began work at Isfahan on Monday after rejecting the latest EU offer.
Although Iran justifies fuel enrichment by saying this is allowed under the NPT that the IAEA would monitor all activities, the IAEA says Iran has already broken the rules by hiding an enrichment program over a period of 18 years. But observers say the majority of Iranians consider the issue a source of national pride in the face of intense pressure from the international community.
Analysts have said Washington might find it hard to garner broad support for sanctions if Iran is taken to the Security Council. They argue that China and Russia, in the first place, may be anxious to avoid jeopardizing their access to oil and lucrative trade with the Islamic state.
China's U.N. ambassador Wang Guangya was quoted earlier this week as having said that it would not be helpful to haul Iran before the Security Council. But Russia -- Iran's main partner in its effort to develop nuclear power -- has called on Tehran to stop work on uranium conversion immediately and continue co-operating with the U.N watchdog.
On the other hand, the country has been subject to more than two years of investigations by the IEAE, but with no "smoking gun" that proves a weapons drive.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
In a latest show of the kind, the Islamic state rejected a resolution tabled by the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- and adopted by the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday, calling on the country to halt its sensitive uranium processing activities.
Tehran had upped the stakes in the crisis a day earlier by removing seals on a uranium conversion plant in the central city of Isfahan, where uranium ore is turned into gas as a precursor to enrichment.
The Isfahan plant is Iran's main uranium conversion facility. Conversion is an early stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, turning raw uranium -- known as yellowcake -- into the feedstock for enriched uranium.
Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel, while further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic weapons.
The reopening, which brought to an end almost nine months of frustration for technicians and the country, gave the facility full operational capacity after Iran on Monday ended its voluntary shutdown which had been put into effect in November 2004.
"The Board of Governors expresses serious concern at the 1 August 2005 notification to the IAEA that Iran had decided to resume the uranium conversion activities at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan..." part of the resolution said.
Adopted by consensus by the body's 35-nation board, the resolution also "urges Iran to re-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities including the production of feed material...."
However, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, was quick to reject the agency's declaration, calling it a "politically motivated" move "approved under the pressures of the United States and its allies and is void of any legal or rational basis, and (therefore it) is unacceptable."
"By ratifying this resolution, the three European states have acted contrary to the spirit of safeguards and negotiations conducted during the past two years as well as the Tehran-Paris agreement," he said, reiterating, "Iran will never give up its legitimate rights and still insists on mastering civil nuclear technology."
The board's scheduled meeting is Sept. 19, but the resolution asked the director general to provide a comprehensive report on Iran's implementation of nuclear safeguards by Sept. 3. Diplomats in Vienna, home to the IAEA's headquarters, hinted that insufficient progress by that date could mean the board would consider referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.
Thursday's resolution, however, stopped short of calling for the matter to be taken to the U.N., given concerns such a move could backfire by hardening Iran's already intransigent position. Some countries even fear a too heavy-handed approach could isolate Iran, as was the case with North Korea.
Iranian officials have said that Tehran would "resist" mounting international pressure and were unworried by threats of sanctions. They argue that, under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, their country has the legal right to carry out the nuclear fuel cycle.
"If one day, Iran's case is referred to the U.N. Security Council, we are not worried," Asefi said. "If the Europeans choose this way, it's up to them to see if it is to their benefit or not."
Despite its defying stance Iran says it is still interested in holding negotiations with the EU, but says it must have the right to develop its own nuclear fuel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who assumed office last week, said Iran had done nothing unlawful by resuming uranium conversion.
"We are ready for talks, and negotiations have never been interrupted by us," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
The newly installed president said his country had initiatives and new proposals which he plans to put forward once he has formed his cabinet.
In Washington, President George W. Bush said Iran's willingness to return to talks was a "positive sign", but added that he was still "deeply suspicious" that Iran was intent on developing a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, Iran's chief negotiator at the IAEA talks, Cyrus Nasseri, angrily criticized the resolution, saying, "Iran will not bend. Iran will be a nuclear fuel producer and supplier within a decade."
He also warned the U.S. and the EU against referring Tehran to the U.N. Security Council.
"I think that would be a grave miscalculation by the U.S. and particularly by Europe to move towards the path of confrontation," Nasseri said. "There is no legal base whatsoever to go to the Security Council. If it is, it is by political choosing and it will be [a] big, big mistake."
The Iranian government Monday replaced its chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, with Ali Larijani, a conservative former head of state broadcasting who is known to have close ties with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The appointment is being seen as a hardening of Iran's position.
In a weekly prayers ceremony Friday, Iran's former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, dismissed the resolution as "very tyrannical," with calling the IAEA's move as a "highly important event" that "will put us and the region possibly under new conditions, opening a new chapter in our revolution."
He warned the West against taking Iran for Iraq or Libya, saying, "You might drag us on and not let Iran tread the path to development of knowledge but you are mistaken."
Rafsanjani, who heads the powerful arbitrative Expediency Council, did not hide his surprise over the wide support the resolution gained during the last session of the IAEA's emergency meeting on Thursday. He criticized certain members of the governing board for turning back to Iran and sparing support for Tehran.
"It's highly surprising and amazing some countries initially supported us and even superficially delayed the meeting for two days but then, through a consensus, adopted what the three European states and the U.S. wanted and nobody opposed."
The EU and the U.S. want Iran to permanently abandon its nuclear program, which they suspect is a cover for a nuclear weapons program, in exchange for nuclear, economic and political incentives. The "generous" concessions, as they were referred to by some European diplomats, were dismissed by Iranian officials as "insulting", "exchange of pearl for candies" and a package of "lollipops." The offer mainly included guaranteed shipments of nuclear fuel, a promised trade agreement with the European Union and help in getting into the World Trade Organization.
Iran, under international pressure, suspended uranium conversion and enrichment activities last year to allow for talks but began work at Isfahan on Monday after rejecting the latest EU offer.
Although Iran justifies fuel enrichment by saying this is allowed under the NPT that the IAEA would monitor all activities, the IAEA says Iran has already broken the rules by hiding an enrichment program over a period of 18 years. But observers say the majority of Iranians consider the issue a source of national pride in the face of intense pressure from the international community.
Analysts have said Washington might find it hard to garner broad support for sanctions if Iran is taken to the Security Council. They argue that China and Russia, in the first place, may be anxious to avoid jeopardizing their access to oil and lucrative trade with the Islamic state.
China's U.N. ambassador Wang Guangya was quoted earlier this week as having said that it would not be helpful to haul Iran before the Security Council. But Russia -- Iran's main partner in its effort to develop nuclear power -- has called on Tehran to stop work on uranium conversion immediately and continue co-operating with the U.N watchdog.
On the other hand, the country has been subject to more than two years of investigations by the IEAE, but with no "smoking gun" that proves a weapons drive.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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