Iran to start sensitive
nuclear work within days
By Stefan Smith
AFP
TEHRAN
Petroleumworld.com 02 07 06
Iran defied mounting international calls for restraint Monday
by announcing it was poised to restart ultra-sensitive nuclear
work that could hand it the capacity to make an atomic bomb.
Senior officials in the Islamic regime, which insists it only
wants electricity and not weapons, also played down the threat
of sanctions and the danger of military strikes by emphasising
the Islamic republic's vast oil wealth and saying "nobody
would dare to attack".
The United States immediately condemned Iran's "threats and
confrontation", while United Nations Secretary General chief
Kofi Annan appealed to Tehran's hardline leadership to "take
steps that would help create an environment of confidence-building".
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- whose 35-nation board voted Saturday
to report Iran to the Security Council -- had been officially
told its inspectors would no longer be allowed to conduct short-notice,
wide-reaching inspection trips and that uranium enrichment work
would resume.
"Their inspectors will come to Iran for this purpose in the
next few days," said Larijani, referring to the procedure
whereby IAEA seals are removed in the presence of its inspectors.
"Those who planned the IAEA's board of governors meeting
against Iran should pay for their behaviour," Larijani said
of the resolution, which marks a turning point in the long-running
crisis and exposes Iran to punitive action.
A confidential report obtained by AFP confirmed Iran had informed
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei of the measures and asked for
the agency's "additional containment and surveillance measures"
to be "removed by mid-February 2006".
Enrichment is a process that involves feeding uranium gas through
cascades of centrifuges. When purified to low levels the result
is reactor fuel, but the process can be extended to make the fissile
core of a nuclear bomb.
Iran says it only wants to generate atomic energy and argues fuel
cycle work is therefore a right enshrined by the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, but the retaliation to the IAEA resolution brings an abrupt
end to more than two years of efforts by Britain, France and Germany
to win a moratorium.
"If they want to pass the case to one another and refer it
to one another so the Iranian nation will give up its right, they
then they can continue doing so for the next 500 years,"
said hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran resumed uranium conversion -- a precursor to enrichment --
in August and lab-scale enrichment on January 10, moves that prompted
the present crisis.
Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said that while "the
door for voluntary measures has been closed, what remains open
is the door of negotiation."
But speaking in Dubai, UN chief Kofi Annan said it was up to Iran
to first "take steps that would help create an environment
of confidence-building measures that would bring back the parties
to the negotiating table."
"The actions and comments coming out of the regime only further
isolate it from the rest of the world," White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said, complaining that "so far all we see
is continued threats and confrontation rather than diplomacy and
cooperation."
Key US Senator Richard Lugar, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, also called for the UN to "apply strict and enforceable
sanctions" if Iran does not back down.
"Failure to do so will severely damage the credibility of
a painstaking diplomatic approach and call into question the world's
commitment to controlling the spread of nuclear weapons,"
he warned.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy warned Iran that
"if they isolate themselves, it will be very serious for
them".
The diplomatic focus has now shifted to mediation efforts by Russia
and China.
"Time is already pressing," Chinese Foreign Minister
Li Zhaoxing said, adding that Beijing was "still encouraging
and working (with) Iranian colleagues".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's initiative
must be allowed to run its course, referring to an offer to enrich
Iranian uranium on Russian soil and a one-month window for talks
on this before the Security Council takes up the case.
But Elham said oil-rich Iran still had the upper hand if it came
to enduring any eventual sanctions.
"It will hurt the consumers and not the producers. We are
in a position of power when it comes to energy," he said.
"Nobody would dare to attack Iran," Larijani also said.
"all the experts say there is a minimal possibility for this
option."
In New York, oil prices ended slightly lower on world markets
Monday as traders appeared to shrug off concerns about an escalation
of the crisis over Iran's nuclear energy program.
AFP
02 06 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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