TEHRAN, 11 January 2006 — Iran removed seals on some equipment at its uranium enrichment plant yesterday and the UN nuclear watchdog agency said Tehran planned to conduct small-scale enrichment despite assurances it only wanted to do research.
As it broke the seals, Iran said that it would not enrich uranium. It had issued the same pledge last week when it notified the United Nations it would restart work at the Natanz enrichment facility.
“What we resume is merely in the field of research, not more than that,” the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Saeedi, told a news conference. “Production of nuclear fuel” — which would involve enrichment — “remains suspended,” he said.
But the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said in its statement later yesterday that uranium hexafluoride — a gaseous form of uranium — would “be fed into cascades” of centrifuges as part of Iran’s activities.
Uranium hexafluoride gas is spun in centrifuges to separate out fissile isotopes in the process of enrichment that can produce low-level nuclear fuel or weapons-grade material.
Iran claims the program is for electricity generation, but Washington accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons.
The move, in defiance of Western demands that it maintain the freeze on its nuclear program, produced an immediate outcry from Europe, the United States and Japan.
“If the regime in Iran continues on the current course and fails to abide by its international obligations, there is no other choice but to refer the matter to the Security Council,” said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. The Council could impose sanctions on Tehran.
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said Britain did not envisage military action against Iran, by Britain or any other country. “Military action is not on our agenda, I don’t believe in practice it is on anyone else’s agenda,” Straw told Parliament. “This has to be resolved by diplomatic and other non-military means and that’s what is on our agenda at the moment.”
Straw said he planned to meet his French and German counterparts tomorrow to discuss whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council. He would meet with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin tomorrow to discuss the next step.
The three European countries have been spearheading diplomatic efforts over the past two years on behalf of the EU in an attempt to persuade Iran to halt any uranium enrichment and conversion activities.
“The issue of referral to the Security Council will be at the top of the agenda,” Straw said. “I think it is clear the direction in which we are thinking.”
He called on Iran to stop its sensitive work, but said if Tehran pursued its current course of action and showed an intention to develop a nuclear facility, it risked bringing instability to the whole of the Middle East.
German Foreign Minister Steinmeier raised doubts over the future of European-led negotiations, questioning whether there remains any basis for more talks.
Japan said the decision was “a matter of deep regret.”
Saeedi did not specify the equipment that had been unsealed, saying that was “a confidential issue between us and the IAEA.”
In Vienna, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming had earlier confirmed the removal of the seals and said the agency’s 35-nation board of governors would be informed later about what the Iranians planned to do with the unsealed equipment.
Iran’s decision to freeze some nuclear activities was voluntary, so the IAEA had no option but to remove the seals at Iran’s request.
The move further erodes the suspension of nuclear activities that has been the centerpiece of Iran’s negotiations with the West. Tehran agreed to the freeze in October 2003 as a confidence-building measure and to avoid being referred to the UN Security Council.
