TEHRAN, 16 May 2005 — Iran said yesterday it was postponing its threatened resumption of sensitive nuclear activities, but insisted the climbdown was merely a temporary gesture ahead of “last chance” emergency talks with European officials. The top Inanian nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, warned that long-term nuclear negotiations could not continue without Iran first resuming uranium work — the focus of international fears the country is seeking to build nuclear weapons.
“We cannot continue the negotiations with the Europeans without having resumed some of our activities,” Rohani told state television, adding Iran’s decision to resume conversion of uranium — a precursor to enrichment — was “still valid”.
“We are in favor of negotiations. We can negotiate for months, but we cannot negotiate under the present conditions,” Rohani argued, repeating the demand to resume activities that were suspended in November 2004 as part of a deal with Britain, France and Germany. Iran announced earlier that it was postponing a restart of work at Isfahan, a move that would have violated the accord, following appeals from the so-called EU-3 and their offer of four-way talks.
The three European nations also warned Iran that it could wind up on the desk of the UN Security Council. “We are in favor of the principle of negotiating,” Rohani said, adding that “the fact that the resumption of our activities will be delayed by several days is not a problem.”
Speaking in Vienna, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier confirmed that he, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw would meet Iranian authorities in the coming days. Iranian media reports said the meeting would take place in either Geneva or Brussels. “The coming days will be the last chance for the Europeans,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. “With or without an agreement, we will restart our activities.”
“The Security Council does not worry Iran,” Asefi said, but acknowledged that Iran had also received appeals from South Africa, Malaysia and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan — who telephoned Iran late Saturday — to hold more talks. Uranium conversion involves turning mined uranium “yellowcake” into uranium tetra fluoride (UF4) and then into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a feed gas for centrifuges that carry out the highly sensitive enrichment process.
Meanwhile, Iran will in one month go to the polls to elect a new president, with the race for the Islamic republic’s No. 2 job shaping up as a battle between hardliners and the more pragmatic conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The Interior Ministry said a record 1,014 people turned up from Tuesday to Saturday to register for a chance to contest the June 17 election, but most of them — including 93 women — are certain of being disqualified. The ministry said the youngest would-be candidate was 16, and the oldest 86. All would-be candidates are subject to a screening process run by the Guardians Council — an unelected body that has in the past been ruthless in weeding out people deemed unfit to hold top posts in the government.
