Reuters: Iranian officials Tuesday threatened to break off negotiations with France, Britain and Germany if the three European Union heavyweights continue to insist that Tehran abandon all sensitive atomic activities. European officials began a new round of talks with Iranian negotiators in Geneva aimed at working out a permanent resolution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, which Washington says is a front to build atomic weapons.

AFP: Negotiators from Iran and the European Union resumed key technical talks Tuesday in the Swiss city of Geneva on Iran’s controversial nuclear policy, a source close to the talks said. The confidential talks, involving diplomats and experts from Britain, France and Germany, as well as Iran, are due to last three days, the diplomat added.

Reuters: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Monday the United States backed EU efforts to persuade Iran to give up nuclear fuel production and he was optimistic talks with Tehran would succeed. Britain, France and Germany are leading European diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to scrap uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear bombs, in return for trade and other benefits.

AP: Iran said Saturday it will never agree to permanently stop making nuclear fuel and warned that any attempt to haul it before the Security Council for possible sanctions would lead to more instability in the Middle East. Any effort by Washington to bring Tehran’s suspended uranium enrichment program under Security Council scrutiny is a dangerous path, warned Hasan Rowhani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator.

AFP: Iranian officials on Sunday doled out heavy criticism of the European Union for lacking “seriousness” in negotiations
aimed at securing guarantees the Islamic republic will not acquire nuclear weapons. Quoted by the state news agency IRNA, top diplomat and negotiator Hossein Moussavian complained that Britain, France and Germany had so far “not shown any seriousness” and that Iran was “seriously doubting their capacity” to strike a deal.

AFP: Negotiators from Iran and the European Union meet in Geneva this week for new talks on Tehran’s nuclear policy, with Iran flatly refusing to accede to the Europeans key demand that it abandon uranium enrichment, a fuel process which can also make atom bombs.
Iran’s top nuclear official Hassan Rowhani warned Saturday that his country would never agree to a permanent halt on enriching uranium.

Reuters: New satellite images show a heavy water plant in Iran, intended to supply a research reactor that could eventually produce plutonium for one atomic bomb a year, is nearly complete, a U.S. think-tank said on Friday.