Iran: Issue of Isfahan UCF no longer on negotiation table

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 20 – Iran announced on Saturday that it was no longer willing to consider European calls for suspension of its nuclear activities at its Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, central Iran. Hamid-Reza Asefi, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters during his press conference that the Islamic Republic also wanted to negotiate about its suspended activities at its uranium enrichment site in Natanz, central Iran. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 20 – Iran announced on Saturday that it was no longer willing to consider European calls for suspension of its nuclear activities at its Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, central Iran.

Hamid-Reza Asefi, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters during his press conference that the Islamic Republic also wanted to negotiate about its suspended activities at its uranium enrichment site in Natanz, central, Iran.

“Iran is willing to unconditionally negotiate with the European side regarding Natanz and Iran’s other nuclear issues, but will not continue [to discuss”> the UCF issue”, Asefi said.

The EU trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom had proposed Iran a package of incentives in an attempt to secure a deal ensuring Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program remain peaceful, however Tehran rejected the offer after it recommenced uranium conversion at the Isfahan plant which it had undertaken not to do under the November 2004 Paris Agreement.

Asked whether Iran was wiling to reconsider its decision on the European package, Asefi said, “We read the European proposals once again and did not find anything new in it”.

On Friday, the Foreign Ministry spokesman told a Saudi newspaper, “Tehran is not afraid of its [nuclear”> file being sent to [the United Nations’”> Security Council”.

Asefi told the daily Okaz, “It is not the end of the world if Iran’s nuclear file is sent before the Security Council”.

He said that Iran’s decisions regarding its suspected nuclear weapons program were made at the highest political level, a reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The West believes that Tehran is secretly working to develop atomic weapons under the smokescreen of nuclear technology. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, called on Iran last week to return to the negotiation table and suspend all nuclear fuel cycle activities.