TEHRAN, 19 September 2005 — Iran warned the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency against sending its atomic case to the UN Security Council, hinting yesterday the move could prompt Tehran to begin enriching uranium.

Uranium enrichment is the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle and is used to produce either atomic reactor fuel or bomb-grade material.

Tehran says it has the right as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to maintain a nuclear program and insists its atomic ambitions are peaceful. But the United States and critics suspect Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The IAEA’s 35-member board of governors meets in Vienna today with Washington and its EU allies keen to hold a vote to refer Tehran to the Security Council where it may face punitive action.

“Our advice to the agency is to review Iran’s case tomorrow logically and realistically to avoid making the case more complicated,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

“We haven’t started (uranium) enrichment yet but everything depends on the result of tomorrow’s meeting,” he said yesterday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly on Saturday Tehran was determined to press ahead with making nuclear fuel.

He said other nations, such as South Africa, could participate in its nuclear program to ensure no material was diverted to weapons production.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw yesterday called Ahmadinejad’s speech on Iran’s nuclear program disappointing.

An EU spokeswoman also said the president’s speech left no alternative for the EU but to pursue a UN referral.

International pressure has mounted on Iran since it broke UN seals at a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan last month. Work had been suspended under a November deal with the EU.

Iran, which says it will never use its nuclear program to produce anything other than electricity, has so far refrained from resuming work at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

“We are closely watching the outcome of tomorrow’s meeting. If there’s a radical result, Iran will decide based on that,” Asefi said. Another Iranian official indicated that Iran was keen to restart uranium enrichment work.

“If the nuclear negotiations (with the EU) are stopped, it is normal that we will start the activities at Natanz facility,” Ali Aghamohammadi, spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the Sharq newspaper yesterday.

Washington, the EU and IAEA have called on Iran to end sensitive activities and resume talks with the EU, which broke down last month after resumption of work at the Isfahan plant.

The hard-line Kayhan newspaper, which has long called for Iran to withdraw from the NPT, yesterday urged Parliament to pass a bill to oblige the government to resume uranium conversion, if Iran’s nuclear case was referred to the UN.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s three biggest powers began drafting a resolution yesterday urging the UN nuclear watchdog to report Tehran to the Security Council for possible sanctions, EU diplomats said.

French, British and German officials decided to ask the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, which could consider economic sanctions, diplomats said.

“The drafting of a resolution sending Iran to the Security Council has begun,” a diplomat from one of the three EU countries, known as the EU3, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.