Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 03 Facing a barrage of international criticism, Iran announced that it would start work
at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, central Iran, early next week, backtracking on earlier threats to restart the
program on Wednesday. Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 03 Facing a barrage of international criticism, Iran announced that it would start work at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, central Iran, early next week, backtracking on earlier threats to restart the program on Wednesday.
Hassan Rowhani, the outgoing Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council and the countrys chief nuclear negotiator, told state television on Wednesday that the decision had been taken to postpone the lifting of the seals, placed at the plant by international weapons inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, so as to give the International Atomic Energy Agency the time it needed to transfer and install cameras and other surveillance equipment to monitor Irans activities.
Rowhani said that he had written a letter to IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei announcing Irans decision to recommence work at the Isfahan plant and requesting the nuclear watchdog to send inspectors to verify the lifting of the seals.
He demanded that the IAEA act speedily in preparing the surveillance apparatus so that Iran would start its uranium conversion activity as soon as possible.
Asked about when Iran would recommence its activities, the mid-ranking cleric replied, By the start of next week.
Rejecting United States and European charges that commencement of uranium conversion was in breach of the November 2004 Paris Agreement with the EU, Rowhani said, We have lived up to all of our commitments in accordance with the Paris Agreement. It is the Europeans who have not fulfilled their promises and have breached the Paris Agreement.
The SNSC secretary told state television that in their letter to him, the three European Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom had warned that if Iran carried out work at the UCF site, their two-year nuclear negotiations would come to an end.
This is not acceptable to us, he said.
Sending Irans nuclear file to the UN Security Council will be a political move under American pressure, Rowhani said.
