Reuters: Germany said on Monday that Iran will face consequences if it removes U.N. seals and begins research on the production of nuclear fuel as it has threatened to do. GENSHAGEN, Germany, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Germany said on Monday that Iran will face consequences if it removes U.N. seals and begins research on the production of nuclear fuel as it has threatened to do.
“It cannot be left without consequences. We will discuss it with our colleagues from France and Great Britain this week, by Thursday at the latest,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters.
“It would be a breach of the agreements we reached in Paris, with France, Great Britain and the Iranians,” he said, referring to the November 2004 Paris Agreement in which Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment programme while in talks with the EU trio.
Germany, France and Britain have been trying to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme, which could be used to make atom bomb fuel, for over two years. Tehran has so far rejected all EU offers of incentives if it gives it up.
The European Union and the United States suspect Tehran is trying to develop weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy programme, a charge Iran denies.
Steinmeier said Iran’s announcement it would begin enrichment work was among the “very, very ominous signals” being sent by Tehran.
