TEHRAN, 20 June 2004 — Defying a resolution from the UN nuclear watchdog that rebuked Iran for past cover-ups in its nuclear program, Tehran said yesterday it would reconsider its suspension of some uranium enrichment activities in the “next few days.”
Iran also accused France, Britain and Germany of reneging on their promises to work to remove Iran’s nuclear dossier from the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency and rejected demands by the UN group to stop building a heavy water nuclear reactor and halt operations of a nuclear conversion facility in central Iran.
“Iran will reconsider its decision about suspension and will do some uranium activity in the coming days,” Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani said. “Whether we are going to resume enrichment — meaning injecting gas into centrifuges — we haven’t decided yet. Perhaps we will continue suspension of injecting gas into centrifuges for some time, but we will end suspension of some other measures in the coming days.”
Other measures could include steps toward enrichment, such as building centrifuges. But Rowhani also said Iran would continue to work with the IAEA.
Rowhani said Iran had specified to European nations in October that its suspension of uranium enrichment would last anywhere from a day to a maximum of a year, which means it could be a matter of only another four months before Iran likely would be resuming those activities anyway.
Iran suspended uranium enrichment last year under international pressure and in a deal with Britain, Germany and France that extracted a European promise to make it easier for Iran to obtain advanced nuclear technology.
Rowhani’s remarks came a day after a European-drafted resolution passed by the IAEA said it “deplores” that “Iran’s cooperation has not been as full, timely and proactive as it should have been. It noted that “a number of questions remain outstanding” since Iran’s undeclared program came to light.
The censure was a product of days of diplomatic maneuvering and attempts by Iran to tone down the resolution at a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors. The board did not hand down sanctions.
A top lawmaker said yesterday the Iranian Parliament may not approve unfettered inspection of Iranian facilities by IAEA.
“IAEA’s continued negative stance... would give the Parliament extra reason not to approve the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the head of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi as saying.
Under the protocol, Iran has to agree to unfettered inspection of its nuclear facilities without prior notice. Iran’s government has approved it, but it cannot become law without Parliament’s approval.
