TEHRAN, 3 August 2005 — Iran said yesterday there was no going back on its decision to restart nuclear fuel work as the European Union and United States issued sharp warnings to Tehran saying it could trigger unspecified consequences from the UN Security Council.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana underscored the growing seriousness of the confrontation in a joint letter to Iranian authorities made public in Paris.

“Were Iran to resume currently suspended activities, our negotiations would be brought to an end, and we would have no option but to pursue other courses of action,” they said in the text addressed to Iran’s nuclear program director, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Hassan Rowhani.

The three countries said they were seeking a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors “in the next few days to discuss the way ahead.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, said: “The time for threats and intimidation is over.”

The French and US governments said that, after the IAEA meeting, the issue could be taken to the UN Security Council where sanctions could be imposed on Tehran as punishment.

“We therefore call upon Iran not to resume suspended activities or take other unilateral steps, and to confirm without delay it full commitment to the Paris Agreement,” the European ministers said in their letter.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters after a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Jacques Chirac that the Iranian decision might spark “a major international crisis”.

“I think this Iranian affair is very serious and that it could be the start of a major crisis,” he said.

In Tehran Supreme National Security Council spokesman Ali Agha Mohammadi told Reuters: “The political decision has been taken ... The resumption is irreversible.”

He said that as far as Iran was concerned, the resumption had already begun. But he did not say the Iranians had actually broken the seals placed at the plant by UN inspectors — which would be a more decisive defiance of the international community.

“The decision has been taken. Work has begun,” said outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami, a day before he hands over power to Mahmood Ahmadinejad.

A new US intelligence review estimates Iran is about 10 years away from having the ability to build a nuclear bomb, The Washington Post said yesterday.

Russian news agencies quoted sources in Russia’s atomic agency, Rosatom, as saying Russia will maintain support for Iran’s nuclear program despite Tehran’s decision to restart the enrichment of uranium.

Meanwhile, in a possible indication of growing tensions between Iran and the West, an explosive device with a weak charge went off outside the offices of British Airways and British Petroleum in Tehran without causing casualties.

Judge Shot Dead

An Iranian magistrate who has given verdicts in high-profile political cases, including that of jailed dissident Akbar Ganji, was shot dead yesterday in broad daylight on a Tehran street, said judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimi Rad. Massoud Moghadas was shot dead in his car, an AFP correspondent reported. Witnesses quoted by local media said he was shot by at least one person on a motorbike.