VIENNA, 21 August 2005 — UN nuclear agency tests have concluded that traces of highly enriched uranium on centrifuge parts were from imported equipment — rather than any enrichment activities by Iran, a senior Western diplomat said yesterday. The findings support Iran’s claims that the material entered the country together with centrifuge parts provided by Pakistan. The diplomat who confirmed the results spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
“The source of contamination was not related to Iran,” said Hamid Reza Asefi, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry. “We are sure the source is not internal.” The United States has alleged the material was produced by Tehran and that the particles were evidence that Iran was experimenting with producing highly enriched uranium, which is only used in nuclear weapons.
The traces were found on centrifuges in the city of Natanz in 2003 and had raised concerns about the motives behind Iran’s nuclear activities. Iran has insisted that it was only interested in processing low-enriched uranium for power generation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been testing centrifuge parts provided by Pakistan as well as uranium found on centrifuges bought by Iran on the nuclear black market. Pakistan provided the components earlier this year to compare the traces and assess Iran’s claims of innocence. The agency declined to comment.
Asefi also said Iran is ready to examine any new European Union proposals aimed at resolving a row over the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions but will not return to a full freeze of its activities. “It is natural that if they change their proposals, and in those new proposals they recognize the Islamic republic’s rights, then we will look at it.”
But he added that “of course we are ready to negotiate unconditionally. We will not go back on the UCF (uranium conversion facility) at Isfahan but we are ready to negotiate on Natanz (a uranium enrichment plant) and some other issues.”
Meanwhile, Iranian dissident journalist Akbar Ganji is out of intensive care after being reported to have officially ended a lengthy hunger strike, a hospital official told the state news agency IRNA. Cyrus Tabesh, a spokesman at Milad hospital to where Ganji had been shifted from prison, said the jailed writer had been moved to a general ward and that his “his general condition is better now he is cooperating with his physicians.”
Three days ago, Tehran’s deputy public prosecutor Mahmood Salarkia said that Ganji has “officially” ended his hunger strike. He began refusing food on June 11 in a bid to secure his unconditional release. The 46-year-old dissident was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 after he wrote articles implicating several regime officials in the murders of opposition intellectuals and writers.
