UN chief urges Iran not to restart nuclear activities

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

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.

A spokesman for Secretary General Annan told reporters, “The Secretary-General urges restraint and patience on the part of the Iranian authorities”, adding, “He very much believes that they should wait for the latest proposals from the European Three before making any attempts to restart their nuclear activities”.

On Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, called on Iran not to resume its suspended nuclear activities.

The Foreign Ministers of the EU-3 as well as the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday sent a letter to Hassan Rowhani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, in which they warned that if Tehran carries out its threats to remove the seals from its nuclear conversion facility in Isfahan, central Iran, and re-start work on the nuclear fuel cycle then Europe would have to pursue “other courses of action”.

The French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin made the warning more blunt, by saying that such actions on the part of Iran would inevitably its nuclear file brought before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

In Washington, similarly, the White House press secretary told reporters on Monday that any breach by Iran of its obligations under the November 2004 Paris Agreement would force the West to send Iran to the Security Council.