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Iran signals defiance ahead of IAEA meeting
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-18 20:50
One step from U.N. Security Council referral, Iran
confirmed it had resumed uranium conversion, and leading European powers were
set to meet U.S., Chinese and Russian officials on Friday to discuss a response.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani
speaks to journalists in Tehran, September 20, 2005. One step from U.N.
Security Council referral, Iran confirmed that it had started processing a
new batch of uranium at its Isfahan nuclear plant, Larijani was quoted on
Friday as saying. [Reuters] |
"We had informed the U.N. watchdog that Iran wanted to process a new batch of
uranium and we have started it," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani
told reporters.
Accused by the West of running a covert atomic weapons programme, Iran told
the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in late October that
it planned to process a new batch of uranium, without giving a specific date.
Larijani did not say when processing had resumed at a plant in Isfahan, but
diplomats in Vienna reported it on Wednesday.
While not illegal, restarting conversion signals Iranian defiance before next
Thursday's meeting of the IAEA board, which could send Iran to the Security
Council for possible sanctions.
France said the Iranian move was unhelpful.
"We consider that this is a decision which does not go in the right
direction," a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
"It does not contribute to creating a climate of
confidence between Iran and the international community," he added.
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