IRAN: Iran confirmed it would resume research on nuclear fuel yesterday, prompting swift warnings by Germany of "consequences" and by the head of the UN nuclear watchdog that the world was running out of patience with Tehran.
"Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference yesterday.
Germany, France and Britain have been trying for over two years to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme, which could be used to make an atom bomb. The EU and the US suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran strongly denies.
EU and US officials have said a resumption of research could lead to Tehran being referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters an Iranian resumption of research "cannot be left without consequences".
"We will discuss it with our colleagues from France and Great Britain . . . by Thursday at the latest.
"It would be a breach of the agreements we reached in Paris," he said, referring to the November 2004 accord in which Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment programme while in talks with the EU trio.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei added to the pressure on Iran to hold its hand. "I am running out of patience, the international community is running out of patience, the credibility of the verification process is at stake and I'd like, come March, which is my next report, to be able to clarify these issues," he said.
"Everybody would like to see us clarifying the remaining issues, everybody would like to see a regime by which the international community is assured that the Iranian programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes, and there are still a number of issues we are looking at," he added.
Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Iran's decision was "the wrong step in the wrong direction and is a cause of very serious concern".
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful and says it has the right to enrich uranium on its own soil.
"Iran will never abandon its legitimate right to nuclear technology, obtained by the young Iranian scientists," state television quoted supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the ultimate say on state matters, as saying.
The EU and the US back a plan put forward by Moscow for Iran to enrich uranium in Russia, which would ensure the uranium was enriched only to levels where it could be used to generate electricity and not to make nuclear bombs.
Talks between Russia and Iran on the proposal ended on Sunday without any progress, but are due to resume on February 16th. - (Reuters)