Iran has given European Union negotiators a deadline of 12.30pm GMT on Sunday to submit proposals aimed at ending a crisis over Tehran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s negotiator said.
Ali Agha Mohammadi also warned that Iran will partially resume uranium-conversion activities, at the risk of being taken before the United Nations Security Council, if the EU proposals fail to recognise its right to do so.
”We did a lot of work yesterday, during the day and in the evening, and we made decisions based on three main principles,” he said.
He listed these as ”The negotiations continue, we will not resume enrichment, [and] we are today waiting until 5pm [local time] for the European proposals.
”The only thing that we will resume, if the European proposals do not take into account the least of our demands, is part of the [conversion] activities at Isfahan,” he said.
Conversion changes uranium ore into the uranium gas that is the feedstock for enrichment.
Iran has threatened to resume uranium-enrichment activities, a process that makes fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but what can also be the explosive core of atom bombs, and had earlier set a deadline of Monday for EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany to offer a package of incentives to be provided in return for Iran guaranteeing its nuclear programme is peaceful. — Sapa-AFP