Tehran rebuffs Europe’s uranium edict

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 10/11/05

Days after receiving an invitation from Iran to resume negotiations on its nuclear programme, the EU has been warned that Tehran will not accept demands to halt uranium enrichment, a key stumbling block in earlier talks.

Iranian negotiator Ali Asghar Soltanieh told European Voice that Iran would not abandon its enrichment programme after decades of effort and a multi-billion euro investment. The programme is suspected by the EU and US of being a cover for obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"We are not starting from scratch, we are not at the beginning of the road that we would be able to decide not to go [ahead] or to give up the whole thing. It is not the beginning: we cannot easily give up," he said.

Talks between the EU and Iran broke down in August after the EU called on Iran to halt uranium enrichment permanently in order to providing "objective guarantees" that it was not pursuing a weapon.

EU diplomats had insisted that suspension of enrichment was a prerequisite for talks to restart, but Soltanieh described the previous offer as "humiliating".

His comments come just weeks before the UN's nuclear watchdog is scheduled to meet again to discuss referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council where it could face sanctions.

Talks are increasingly being seen as a last-ditch attempt to avoid international confrontation.

Last month members of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted in favour of a resolution condemning Iran for hiding its nuclear programme for almost two decades.

Soltanieh, who is also responsible for escorting international inspectors around Iran's nuclear facilities, said that while Iran was now ready to work with the IAEA, such allegations of past concealment were legally "baseless".

He poured cold water on the idea that Iran might be supplied with nuclear fuel enriched outside the country, in return for a permanent end to enrichment activities. This was being seen by Russia and others as a potential way out of the crisis.

"There is no single page of an international legally binding instrument that would ensure supply," he said, pointing to past failures by the international community to set up a 'fuel bank'.

Echoing comments from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he said a joint venture producing fuel could be possible under IAEA supervision, but it would have to take place inside the country.

"We are welcoming countries, industrial countries, European countries, whoever, to join the joint venture with Iran...that third country or company could also monitor and be present in our enrichment facilities," he said.

Comments by Iranian negotiator Ali Asghar Soltanieh, who warned the EU that Iran would not abandon its enrichment programme after decades of effort and a multi-billion euro investment. This came few days after the EU had received an invitation from Iran to resume negotiations on its nuclear programme.