Iran says nuclear activities to resume; blames inaction by EU
TEHRAN -- Iran said yesterday that it would resume sensitive nuclear activities at once without waiting for compromise proposals from the European Union, a move that the EU said was ''unnecessary and damaging" and could derail their talks.
Iran said it was acting after the EU failed to meet a deadline set by Tehran to deliver an offer to break the impasse.
But the British Foreign Office said the EU -- represented by Britain, France, and Germany -- had informed Iran that ''full and detailed proposals" would be delivered in a week. The EU plans to offer economic and political incentives in return for Iran's indefinite suspension of uranium enrichment, nuclear fuel reprocessing, and related activities.
''We urge them not to take any unilateral step which would contravene the Paris agreement as that would make it very difficult to continue with the . . . negotiations," it said.
A senior Iranian nuclear official said on condition of anonymity: ''As we did not receive the EU proposals, naturally we will definitely resume work at the Isfahan plant tomorrow."
The EU and the United States suspect that Iran is trying to build a nuclear arsenal and say if Iran restarts uranium conversion or enrichment, they will ask the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Tehran insists its program is peaceful and it only wants nuclear power to generate electricity.
In Paris last November, Iran committed ''on a voluntary basis, to continue and extend its suspension to include all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities" and ''all tests or production at any uranium conversion installation."
It was unclear whether the EU would now submit its proposals.
The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency can recommend Iran be referred to the UN Security Council, which could then vote to impose sanctions.
Russia and China, which both hold a veto as permanent members of the council, have close trade links with Iran and are more opposed to sanctions than other members. But an EU diplomat close to the talks said there is now a closer consensus among Security Council members on the possible need for sanctions.
