Iran resumes 'Sensitive nuclear work'
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

ISFAHAN (Iran): Iran resumed ultra-sensitive nuclear work at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan on Monday, a senior nuclear official said, a move that risks an international crisis.

"Iran has resumed the conversion of uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency," the vice-president of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency Mohammad Saidi told journalists.

The resumption of the work puts Iran at risk of being hauled before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

UN Inspectors

Meanwhile, a report from Tehran says that Inspectors from the UN's nuclear watchdog have reportedly arrived at Iran's main uranium conversion plant, where activity is about to be resumed.

They are due to install surveillance equipment and oversee its unsealing, an Iranian official said.

Iran maintains its right to carry out nuclear activity for peaceful purposes, and has rejected the latest European proposals for their nuclear programme. Work at the Isfahan plant had been suspended since November 2004.

"The agency technicians have arrived at the uranium conversion facility to install surveillance cameras," an official told foreign news agency.

UN Watchdog

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency will hold an emergency meeting of its 35-member board of governors today, Tuesday to discuss the standoff with Iran.

France, Germany, Britain and the United States are likely to push for Iran to be referred to the U.N. Security Council, where they could seek new economic sanctions.

But sanctions are far from a sure thing: Russia, which has reportedly helped Iran build its first nuclear reactor and China which has been strengthening ties with Tehran, hold veto power in the council.

Tehran suspended its nuclear activities in November to avoid sanctions and as a gesture in the negotiations with Europe. But it has expressed frustration with the talks and has been threatening for weeks to resume part of the program — work done at the Uranium Conversion Facility outside the city of Isfahan.

On Sunday, Iran brushed off the sanctions threat."We are not concerned and are ready for everything," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. He called the threats "not effective. What interests us is cooperation. We advise Europe to withdraw its threats."

On Monday, work at Isfahan resume, after IAEA inspectors installed cameras and other surveillance equipment intended to ensure no nuclear material is diverted. Iranian technicians in white suits and surgical masks rolled out barrels of yellowcake — raw uranium — to begin the conversion process.

The facility covers over 150 acres spread along mountains outside the city. Parts of the facility were built in tunnels in the mountains as protection from airstrikes. It is also surrounded by radar stations and anti-aircraft batteries.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said work had resumed as Isfahan before the surveillance equipment was tested, "which normally takes 24 hours," ElBaradei's spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said in Vienna.

In-depth

Iran resumed uranium conversion activities at its Isfahan nuclear facility Monday, a step that Europeans and the United States warned would prompt them to seek U.N. sanctions against Tehran.

Work resumed at the conversion facility quickly after inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog finished installing surveillance equipment there and seals on equipment were removed.

The move came a day before the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, is to hold an emergency meeting at which it could consider referring Tehran to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.

Germany, France and the U.S. have said they would likely recommend doing so if work at Isfahan resumes. Iran had suspended work at the plant and its other nuclear facilities in November to avoid sanctions and as a gesture in negotiations with the Europeans.

The resumption escalates a confrontation between Iran and the West over its nuclear program, which the Europeans have been trying to persuade the Iranians to sharply limit. But Iran on Saturday rejected European proposals for it to curtail the program in return for economic incentives.

Germany, France and the United States have said that if Iran restarts work in Isfahan, they would seek to have Tehran referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran insists its program aims only to produce electricity. Iran also has insisted it has the right to develop the entire fuel cycle — from raw uranium to the fuel for a reactor. Europe fears that if Iran can develop fuel on its own, it also will secretly produce material for a bomb.

The conversion facility, 10 miles southeast of the historical city of Isfahan, carried out an early stage of the fuel cycle, turning raw uranium, known as yellowcake, into gas, the feedstock for enrichment.

“The uranium conversion facility restarted its work a few minutes ago,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Monday. In the next stage of the process — which Iran has said it will not resume for the time being — the gas is fed in centrifuges for enrichment. Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel and further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic bomb.

Iran by resuming work on uranium conversion has put itself on a collision course with the West. Nuclear resumption by Iran drew a swift response from arch-enemy the United States, which accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons and has long sought its referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran’s action follows its rejection last week as “unacceptable” a package of EU proposals aimed at guaranteeing that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful.

Tehran insists that it has the right to nuclear technology for energy purposes under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The EU, which has been negotiating with Iran for nine months, had already called for an emergency meeting Tuesday of the IAEA board during which an ultimatum demanding a commitment to suspend nuclear fuel work is expected.

“The decision is irreversible even if the board decides tomorrow to send the Iran dossier to the Security Council because (the international demand for a suspension) has no legal basis and is contrary to the NPT,” Saidi told journalists.

Iran has been under investigation for more than two years by the IAEA, which has accused it of hiding controversial nuclear work but has yet to find any proof of a weapons programme.

Meanwhile the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors arrived at an Iranian plant where Tehran has reportedly resumed sensitive nuclear work.

“The inspectors are in Isfahan to install their equipment and lift seals on the plant,” said an Iranian official who declined to be named.

The UN inspectors arrived in Iran late Sunday, two days before an emergency meeting of the IAEA called by the European Union after Tehran announced it would resume the ultra-sensitive work.

Iran’s conservative-controlled parliament demanded that uranium conversion resume ahead of Tuesday’s meeting of the IAEA governors, outside the watchdog’s supervision if necessary.

The EU incentives, backed by the United States, aim to allow Tehran the right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy activities as long as it refrains from fuel-cycle work that could help it make atomic weapons.

The United States, which is not a party to the EU offer, charges that Iran is using its civilian programme as a cover to secretly develop nuclear weapons, something Iran has always denied.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday that Iran, which insists it has the right to uranium enrichment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, was unconcerned about possible Security Council action.

Aghazadeh blamed the European Union for bringing matters to a head by submitting an “insulting” package of incentives.●