TEHRAN, 26 November 2005 — Iran summoned Britain’s ambassador in Tehran to protest about a British-issued EU statement on human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic, diplomats said yesterday. “He was summoned late on Thursday night,” said one British diplomat.

Richard Dalton was summoned in protest at an EU statement condemning Iran’s detention of political prisoners such as Akbar Ganji, imprisoned in 2000 after writing articles which linked senior officials to the murder of dissidents. As EU president, Britain issued the statement.

Iran’s state television said Iranian Foreign Ministry officials used the meeting to complain about the treatment of Muslims in Britain, arguing that they were being persecuted by anti-terrorism laws.

Uranium Enrichment

Enriching uranium is the new red line the West has set in the showdown with Iran over its nuclear ambitions but Tehran insists on its right to this possibly weapons-related technology, diplomats and analysts told AFP yesterday.

“The United States and Europe have clearly moved away from uranium conversion to set enrichment as the new red line but it’s not clear if Russia, the key diplomatic player at this point, buys this,” Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-proliferation expert at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank, said.

Conversion is the first step in enriching uranium into what can be fuel for nuclear power reactors but also the raw material for nuclear bombs.

German Ambassador Herbert Honsowitz indicated the new red line when he told the IAEA board Thursday that the concern over unilateral nuclear moves by Iran was “particularly true regarding threats to start enrichment. It must be absolutely clear that this would immediately put an end to our efforts” for a compromise.

Iran however stubbornly defends its “right” to enrich uranium, as stipulated in the NPT. Iran’s IAEA Ambassador Mohammad Akhundzadeh told Iranian media yesterday: “Like all member countries in the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Islamic Republic of Iran has the right to enrich uranium,” he said.

Fitzpatrick said the Iranians had succeeded in advancing their nuclear program while dealing with the IAEA “by taking the minimal half-step to prevent being sent to the docket in New York.”