Iran vows to resume nuclear activities
Thursday
12 May 2005, 12:58 Makka Time, 9:58 GMT
Russia is to deliver nuclear fuel
to Iran at the end of this year
Source
Iran has vowed it will resume nuclear activities, refuting suggestions
that it is considering, under European pressure, backing away from its threat
to immediately end its freeze on uranium conversion.
Hasan Rowhani, Iran's
top nuclear negotiator, said on Thursday that Tehran would resume some nuclear
activities because it could not continue nuclear negotiations with Europeans.
"Continuation
of negotiations in their present format is not possible for us," Rowhani
told Ian state-run television.
"The basic point that the Islamic
Republic of Iran will resume part of its nuclear activities in the near future
is definite," Rowhani said.
Earlier, diplomats in Vienna had said Iran
was considering backing away from its threat to immediately resume activities
that can be part of the process of making nuclear weapons, in an apparent attempt
to defuse a showdown with key European nations.
One of the diplomats said
that Iranian government officials in Tehran were discussing maintaining their
freeze on uranium conversion because of a warning from key European countries
that such a move would result in "consequences ... that would only be negative
for Iran", diplomatic code for likely action by the UN Security Council.
Iranian
journalist Muhammad Sadiq al-Hussaini told Aljazeera that Iran's resumption of
its nuclear programme would serve as a warning to the European tripartite negotiating
delegation to not give in to US pressure to abandon talks.
Uranium conversion
Another
Iranian senior official affirmed on Thursday that Tehran would resume a "noticeable
part" of uranium conversion activities.
"Continuation of negotiations
in their present format is not possible for us. The basic point that the Islamic
Republic of Iran will resume part of its nuclear activities in the near future
is definite"
Hasan Rowhani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator
"Based
on the reviews and decisions which were made, we are going to restart a small
part of the suspended activities," Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, a vice-president
and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told state television.
He
said "probably a noticeable part of UCF", or work at a uranium conversion
facility near the central city of Isfahan, would be resumed.
Aghazadeh added
that the "exact date of the restart will be given to me momentarily".
Russian
offer
Russia plans to make its first delivery of nuclear fuel to
Iran at the end of this year or early next year, a senior Russian nuclear official
said on Thursday.
The delivery comes under a landmark agreement to fire
up the country's first atomic power station.
Iran is to resume work on its
uranium
conversion activities
"They have to start to fire it up mid-2006. The
fuel has to be at the plant six months before that," Alexander Rumyantsev,
the head of the Russian atomic agency, said in an interview to be published on
Thursday.
Under the accord between Russia and Iran, signed in February,
Russia is to send nearly 100 tonnes of fuel in several consignments under the
supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"All
the necessary precautions have been made in line with international standards,"
Rumyantsev said.
Atomic weapons
The United States alleges that
the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran is part of a cover for weapons
development.
Washington is convinced that Iran is seeking to build atomic
weapons - charges that Tehran denies - and has been trying to convince Moscow
to halt its nuclear cooperation.
As a concession to Western concerns, Russia
will fuel the reactor on the condition that Iran sends back spent fuel, which
could potentially be upgraded for weapons use.
Tehran initially rejected
the condition, but eventually relented after two years of negotiations.
