Iran Focus: Tehran, Feb. 13 Iran will resume enriching uranium as part of its suspected nuclear weapons program’s once ordered to do so by the Majlis (parliament), according to a senior official from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO). Mohammad Saeedi, the IAEO’s deputy head of International Affairs and Planning, said that parliament will present a bill to “task Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation with meeting part of
the fuel (demand) for the country’s atomic plants”. Iran Focus
Tehran, Feb. 13 Iran will resume enriching uranium as part of its suspected nuclear weapons program’s once ordered to do so by the Majlis (parliament), according to a senior official from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO).
Mohammad Saeedi, the IAEO’s deputy head of International Affairs and Planning, said that parliament will present a bill to “task Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation with meeting part of the fuel (demand) for the country’s atomic plants”.
Speaking today to Iran’s state-run news agency, Saeedi said that the Majlis will oblige the IAEO to produce nuclear fuel needed for the reactors.
It would mark Tehran’s rejection of European efforts to persuade Iran to permanently suspend uranium enrichment, which is believed to be a crucial step for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.
He reaffirmed “the definitive position of the Islamic Republic to continue uranium enrichment”.
Iran, under international pressure, as part of a deal with France, Germany, and the UK, agreed last November to suspend uranium enrichment, which Washington suspects is part of a covert nuclear weapons program, in exchange for trade, technology and security incentives.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi separately rejected today a European offer aimed at limiting its nuclear fuel activities.
He reiterated that Iran would not be willing to halt construction of a heavy-water reactor in Arak (central Iran), which can be used to make nuclear weapons material, in exchange for a light-water reactor being offered by the Europeans.
Speaking to reporters, Asefi said, “We will not under any circumstances replace our heavy-water research reactor”. “We will continue working on our heavy-water reactor,” he added.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also warned today that Iran would be referred to the United Nations Security Council if it resumed nuclear enrichment.
“If Iran behaves in an unreasonable way, if for example it restarts enrichment… then that would lead to the Security Council,” Fischer said, speaking to an international security conference in Munich, Germany.
