Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 03 – Iran announced on
Wednesday that it planned to re-start frozen nuclear activities at its Uranium Conversion Facility; a move that could provoke a major international crisis. “We will, God willing, remove the seals and resume activities today,” Ali Aghamohammadi, the spokesman
for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told reporters in Tehran. He was referring to seals placed by international nuclear inspectors on the conversion plant in the central city of Isfahan.

Washington Post: Britain, France and Germany took a tough line yesterday in response to Iran’s announcement that it has decided to resume work at a key nuclear facility. In a letter to Tehran, foreign ministers from the three European countries said such an action would end two years of negotiations, and left open the possibility of taking the issue up with the U.N. Security Council, something the Bush administration has advocated and Iran has sought to avoid.

The Times: Europe warned Iran yesterday that it faced possible punitive action by the UN Security Council if it resumed its programme to enrich uranium. The British, French and German foreign ministers and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, jointly wrote a letter warning of dire consequences if Tehran breaks a commitment made last year to halt the conversion of uranium ore at its nuclear site in Isfahan.

Iran Focus: London, Aug. 02 – United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday added his voice to a string of world leaders and governments in urging Iran not to go ahead with
its threat to reactivate its suspected nuclear weapons activities that had been suspended as Tehran was negotiating with the European trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – Iran snubbed Tuesday evening European calls for it to abandon its threats to resume nuclear conversion work and continue negotiations with the European Three – Britain, France, and Germany. “The time for threats and intimidation is over”, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said in an announcement carried in Iran’s state-run news agency.