Iran is to resume elements of its uranium enrichment programme on Tuesday in a move which worsens the confrontation with the west over Tehran’s suspected ambition to develop a nuclear bomb.
Withdrawing from previous pledges to freeze all uranium-enrichment activities, Tehran said on Sunday it would resume manufacturing parts for centrifuges on Tuesday and would also restart the assembly of the centrifuges, the machines that refine crude uranium into bomb-grade material or nuclear fuel for power stations.
Iran’s decision was criticised yesterday by the EU, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and the White House. It will fuel further suspicions about Iran’s nuclear programme and increase mistrust at the IAEA, whose 35-strong governing board regularly seeks to come up with a policy towards Iran.
The announcement was a blow to Britain, France and Germany which reached the Tehran Agreement last October, an accord under which Iran promised to freeze its enrichment activity.
Iran’s decision reflects anger at the EU troika who co-authored a recent censure of Tehran at the IAEA. Trying to close down the enrichment programme has been the central plank of the EU’s strategy for the past year. Enriching uranium and developing the technology required are key steps in making a nuclear bomb.
Germany trumpeted October’s deal as a triumph for European diplomacy, implicitly criticising Washing- ton’s more confrontational approach.
The Iranians wrote to the EU troika last week serving notice that the deal was now void. Unlike Washington, which urges that Tehran be reported to and punished by the UN security council, the EU has been eager to avoid a showdown, keep the channels open to Tehran and hope to mitigate Iranian behaviour. As a result of the latest Iranian move the Europeans may take a harder line.
Iran’s foreign ministry said: ”Europeans failed to respect their commitments. There is no reason for us to keep our moral promise.”
While assembling centrifuges and manufacturing components for them Tehran said it would maintain its freeze on uranium enrichment. But it is also continuing to produce uranium hexafluoride, the gas which is fed into the centrifuges to be turned into nuclear fuel or material for warheads.
Iran’s main enrichment facility is at a reinforced underground complex at Natanz in central Iran which will be able to house tens of thousands of centrifuges when complete.
In addition to the EU agreement, twice last year the IAEA urged Iran to halt ”all enrichment-related activities”.
Last November the Iranians told the agency they would freeze the programme, but the freeze was not implemented until April. Western diplomats following the case closely say the Iranian promise has never been fully honoured.
”They had suspended about 95% of the activities, but it’s the other 5% that bothers us,” said one source.
Iran is furious that its nuclear project continues to dominate the quarterly board meetings of the IAEA and says the Europeans promised to have Iran removed from the agenda in Vienna, but failed to deliver. The EU is also delaying approving a trade agreement with Iran until the nuclear issue is resolved. A statement from the EU-US summit in Ireland on Saturday said: ”The US and EU were disturbed by Iran’s announcement of its intention to resume manufacturing and assembly of centrifuges and called on Iran to rethink its decision.”
Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA’s director-general, said the Iranian decision would worsen the ”confidence deficit” produced by Iran’s repeated refusals to come clean on a nuclear programme which was conducted covertly for 18 years until being partially uncovered over the past two years.
At the Nato summit in Istanbul on Sunday the White House’s spokesperson, Scott McClellan, sought greater international support for the US’s hard line on Iran.
”We have expressed concern within the IAEA about the need to consider sending this matter to the security council of the United Nations and I think this latest move may only serve to convince others of the need to seriously consider that step,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â