VIENNA – Iran’s move to escalate uranium enrichment is unjustified because a draft nuclear supply deal it has snubbed contains guarantees for Tehran’s benefit, according to a joint US-Russian-French letter.
The letter to the UN nuclear watchdog was a response to Iran’s launch last week of higher-grade enrichment – raising suspicions of a quest for atomic bomb capability – on grounds that world powers’ terms for the deal were inadequate.
“[This] is wholly unjustified . . . If Iran goes forward with this escalation, it would raise new concerns about Iran’s nuclear intentions,” said the letter, dated February 12th.
It said the UN proposal for Iran to swap enriched uranium for nuclear medicine fuel, which would defuse the risk of Tehran using the material for nuclear bombs, contained legal assurances it would be fulfilled, contrary to Iran’s assertions.
Diplomats said the letter was leaked to refute Iranian statements that the powers had offered a new proposal to address Tehran’s complaints about the plan, brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 21st.
The letter was important also as a further signal of a hardening Russian line on Iran’s nuclear defiance after years of buffering an important trade partner from stringent UN sanctions long sought by western powers. The Kremlin said yesterday Iran could face harsher measures if it failed to dispel fears about its nuclear programme.
Meanwhile, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday he was hopeful that the cases of Americans detained in Iran and of Iranians held in the US would be resolved and that they would be freed. Asked about three US citizens detained last year in Iran and accused of spying, he said they had crossed the border illegally and the judiciary would examine their cases. – (Reuters)