Iran resumes atomic work, escalates crisis

ISFAHAN, Iran - Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion plant on Monday, fanning Western fears it may be seeking nuclear weapons and defying EU warnings that it could be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, confirmed Iran has restarted some nuclear activities that had been mothballed under a deal with the European Union's three biggest powers.

The agency stopped short, however, of saying that Iran had ended its suspension of all atomic activities that could be used to develop weapons agreed with the EU in Paris in November.

Britain, Germany and France, heading nuclear negotiations with Iran for the EU, called an emergency meeting of the IAEA board of governors for Tuesday at its headquarters in Vienna.

France, Britain and the United States condemned Iran's actions. But Washington stopped short of immediately calling for the Islamic Republic to be referred to the Security Council as it has frequently threatened to do and said it would help the EU revive their negotiations.

"IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei informed members of the (IAEA) board of governors that Iran today started to feed uranium ore concentrate into the first part of the process line at the uranium conversion facility," it said in a statement.

"It should be noted that the sealed parts of the process line remain intact," said the statement.

To monitor Tehran's compliance with the Paris agreement, the IAEA had sealed sensitive equipment at Iran's uranium conversion facility at Isfahan. EU diplomats said breaking any seals would cross a red line that would eventually lead to a UN referral.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said Tehran intended to break the IAEA seals and restart work at other parts of the Isfahan plant on Tuesday.

ENRICHMENT

At Isfahan, two workers wearing white overalls and face masks lifted a barrel of uranium yellow cake and fed it into the conversion lines that will produce uranium tetrafluoride (UF4). In the part where seals might be broken, UF4 is converted into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which can be enriched.

It means Isfahan has restarted the first stage of the nuclear fuel cycle. Using the sealed parts of the plant would take the process further, but still nowhere near the possibility of making nuclear weapons.

Tehran has so far been careful to stress that it is not restarting work on the most sensitive element of the cycle -- uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make reactor fuel or atomic warheads.

A nuclear scientist, who declined to be named, said: "I am excited, I didn't believe it until the last moment thinking this may not happen, but now I am very happy."

Iran -- which denies harbouring nuclear weapons ambitions -- also delivered its formal rejection of a EU package of political and economic incentives designed to persuade it to scrap nuclear fuel work for good.

"The EU proposal was very insulting and humiliating," Saeedi said.

Iran suspended nuclear fuel work as a confidence-building measure while it explored a long-term arrangement with the EU.

SHARP REACTIONS

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Iran's resumption of nuclear work violated November's accord, adding the tone of Tehran's rejection was "particularly alarming".

"It's a clear violation of the Paris accord and the resolutions of the IAEA," Douste-Blazy told France Info radio "It's a new situation that only makes us increase our doubts over the aims of the Iranian programme."

Last week, Douste-Blazy said Iran would be brought before the Security Council for possible sanctions if it ended the nuclear suspension.

"In rejecting the EU3 offer and taking this step, this is Iran thumbing its nose at a productive approach by the EU3," US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. "We continue to work with the EU3 in support of efforts to get this process back on track."

British Foreign Office Minister Ian Pearson described Iran's rejection of the EU offer as "damaging".

Despite the sharp reactions, EU diplomats said it would not be easy to convince all 35 IAEA board members to issue a stern warning to Iran to refrain from all uranium conversion and enrichment activities -- which it has the right to conduct under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran, aware of its legal rights and the lack of unanimity on the IAEA board, said it was unconcerned.

It says the EU proposal, which included offers of help to develop civilian nuclear energy and in becoming a major transit route for Central Asian oil, is unacceptable as it denies Iran the right to produce its own nuclear fuel.

"Even if they issue a resolution tomorrow, since it would have no legal basis and would violate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we won't accept it and will carry on with our work," Saeedi told a reporters invited to witness the resumption of work at Isfahan.

- REUTERS