Iran must honour deal suspending nuclear activities: French PM

AFP: Iran must abide by a deal with the European Union to suspend its nuclear programme or face UN Security Council retribution, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Tuesday.
“Iran must honour the commitments it has made. These commitments are commitments suspending all activity, conversion, treatment and enrichment of uranium,” Villepin told Europe 1 radio. AFP

PARIS – Iran must abide by a deal with the European Union to suspend its nuclear programme or face UN Security Council retribution, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Tuesday.

“Iran must honour the commitments it has made. These commitments are commitments suspending all activity, conversion, treatment and enrichment of uranium,” Villepin told Europe 1 radio.

If Tehran refuses, “the international community will be forced to draw up consequences… with consensus, with dialogue,” he said.

“And the Security Council will have to be called on if Iran refuses to comply.”

The comments underlined an increasingly tough European response to Iran’s decision to Monday tell the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that it would imminently resume uranium ore conversion, the precursor to enrichment in the nuclear fuel cycle.

The resumption was in breach of a deal with France, Britain and Germany under which Tehran agreed to suspend its nuclear activities in return for trade benefits. The United States fears Iran wants to use its nuclear programme to build atomic bombs.