IRAN: Iran and the European Union look set on a collision course as Tehran says it will resume part of its uranium enrichment programme, which the EU says is in breach of a pact made last November.
As Iran delivered a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency saying it will remove UN seals from a uranium conversion plant near the central city of Esfahan, it took a step closer to being hauled in front of the UN Security Council to face possible sanctions.
Britain, France and Germany told Iran yesterday a resumption of its nuclear activities would bring negotiations on the atomic issue to an end and urged it not to take any unilateral steps.
"Were Iran to resume currently suspended activities, our negotiations would be brought to an end and we would have no option but to pursue other courses of action," the EU trio and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told Iran in a letter sent to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani and obtained by Reuters.
Iran says it will resume only a gas conversion process, which it says is not part of the suspension.
However, Europe says that since gas produced from the conversion can be used to enrich uranium, it is considered a nuclear activity, which is banned under November's Paris agreement.
The nuclear plant near Esfahan turns uranium ore, mined from Iran's deserts, into hexafluoride gas that is then enriched into fuel.
Enriched uranium is used in civilian nuclear power plants, but if highly-enriched, can be used to make an atomic bomb.
Washington says Iran is trying to build a nuclear arsenal. Tehran insists it has the right to enrichment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and says it needs nuclear energy for peaceful purposes - Iran has one of the highest growing electricity consumption rates in the world.
Iran has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the EU over its nuclear programme for the past two years.
Tehran finally agreed to a voluntary suspension of its enrichment programme in November, partly under international pressure, and partly lured by EU carrot-dangling.
This week the EU is to present a package of economic incentives in return for an indefinite suspension of uranium enrichment, nuclear fuel reprocessing and related activities.
But Tehran rejected the offer even before it had been made. Iranian officials are frustrated at the slow pace of negotiation and have grown impatient, calling the negotiations "prolonged and fruitless". Tehran has made it clear that any EU offer that does not accept uranium enrichment would be "totally unacceptable".
"We will restart the plant's activities in the next one or two days," the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Saeedi told state television.
The deepening nuclear crisis comes only days before the official inauguration of Iran's ultra-conservative president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said he will take a tough stand on Iran's nuclear ambitions.
While some analysts claimed the latest twist in the ongoing nuclear saga is a sign of Ahmadinejad's hardline stance, some EU officials suggested this may be a canny political move, paving the way for Ahmadinejad to step in and diffuse the situation.
However, it is unclear to what extent Ahmadinejad will influence nuclear policy, which is set by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and the supreme national security council, of which the president is a member, but not the deciding influence.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post said a new US intelligence review estimates that Iran is about 10 years away from having the ability to build a nuclear bomb.