TEHRAN, 28 June 2004 — Iran yesterday shrugged off yet more international criticism over its nuclear program, refusing to bow to demands it reconsider resuming the production of centrifuges for the highly sensitive process of enriching uranium.
“Nothing very important has happened,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters, trying to play down fresh alarm over an atomic energy program which the United States sees as a cover for weapons development.
The United States and the European Union have called on Iran to go back on its decision to resume the construction of centrifuges, announced by Tehran in retaliation for fresh criticism from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
A halt on centrifuge work had been one of several “confidence-building” measures to which Iran agreed pending the completion of an IAEA probe.
But Asefi insisted that while Iran would go ahead with making centrifuges as of June 29, it was still sticking to its pledge to suspend the enrichment of uranium.
And officials also announced that Iran and the EU’s “big three” — Britain, France and Germany — would be holding new talks this week. “We had agreed with the three Europeans to have cooperation with Iran. We said in the Tehran declaration that we would suspend enrichment, and we will stick to this,” Asefi said, referring to a deal made last October.
Asefi and Hassan Rohani — Iran’s top national security official and nuclear negotiator — said more talks with the Europeans would take place in the coming days.
Iran’s Al-Alam television said they would begin tomorrow at the experts level before moving on to meetings at the ministerial level.
But on centrifuge construction, Rohani and Asefi gave no sign that Iran would back down. The latest “bitterness” shown by the EU and United States was “not very important”, the former said.
Asefi said Iran’s defiant position was merely a response to a failure by the EU three to meet their side of another deal in which they had pledged to help remove the Iran dossier from the top of the IAEA agenda.
Instead, the three had this month sponsored a resolution that sharply criticized the level of Iranian cooperation.
Diplomats, however, gave a completely different account of what the two sides had agreed upon, saying London, Paris and Berlin had set clear conditions.
These were that IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei had to be satisfied by Iran’s level of cooperation, and there needed to be no new revelations uncovered by IAEA inspectors — neither of which has been met.
Despite this, Asefi claimed it was the “Europeans who did not meet their side of the agreement”. He even said this was “shocking” for the Islamic republic, blaming familiar arch-enemy the United States.
“The United States is making a psychological war against Iran. We cannot forget that the US went to war against Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction but has not found any,” he said. “We will not give up our right to peaceful nuclear technology,” he added.
El-Baradei said yesterday that Iran must deal strictly with the UN nuclear watchdog and stop complaining about Europe if it wants to clear itself of allegations it is working toward developing a nuclear bomb.
El-Baradei told journalists in Moscow that his message to Tehran was: “Stop looking anywhere else. You need to look at the agency. You need to cooperate with us (IAEA).”
He said confrontation would not resolve the standoff. “I think these issues are going to be resolved through steady engagement and robust (inspections). No political deal will resolve these issues. These are technical issues that will be resolved when I am able to report that these issues have been technically resolved,” El-Baradei said.
But Asefi said that component building would only be carried out under IAEA supervision. “If we had any different intentions we would not have written a very transparent letter announcing our intention,” he insisted.
“Our policy with the IAEA has not changed. What has changed is our obligations to the EU. The coming and going of inspectors is routine and we welcome it,” Asefi said.
Rohani confirmed yesterday that Iran had razed a site in a suburb of Tehran, but insisted it was to make a park and not to cover up nuclear weapons activities as Washington has alleged. On June 17, the US accused Iran of razing nuclear sites to hide banned nuclear activity.
In Washington, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Iran was providing daily proof why it belonged in the “axis of evil” but a peaceful solution to the row over its nuclear program was still “within sight.”
Rice told Fox News yesterday that Iran remains a “dangerous state” that was trying to develop the capacity to use nuclear power for military purposes and even make nuclear weapons.
