The governors of the UN nuclear watchdog were to hold an emergency meeting yesterday after Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion plant, fanning Western fears it may be seeking nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran had restarted some nuclear activities mothballed under a deal with the EU's three biggest powers.
Tehran also defied EU warnings that it could be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions for having kept its work secret for years, breaching the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that aims to thwart the spread of nuclear arms.
Iran's outgoing Defense Minister yesterday said that Tehran would drop all its international nuclear pledges if its atomic facilities were attacked.
"The day our facilities are attacked, we will put aside all our nuclear commitments," Ali Shamkhani told reporters.
He did not specify which commitments Iran would drop.
Meanwhile, an exiled Iranian dissident who helped uncover nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity in 2002 yesterday said that Iran has manufactured about 4,000 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade.
Alireza Jafarzadeh said the centrifuges -- which he said were unknown to the IAEA -- are ready to be installed at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz, 500km south of Tehran.
Jafarzadeh, who runs Strategic Policy Consulting, a Washington-based think tank focusing on Iran and Iraq, said the information -- which he described as "very recent" -- came from reliable sources within the Tehran regime.
The IAEA did not immediately comment on the centrifuge allegations. The agency had previously said it was aware of the existence of 164 centrifuges at Natanz.
"These 4,000 centrifuge machines have not been declared to the IAEA, and the regime has kept the production of these machines hidden from the inspectors while the negotiations with the European Union have been going on over the past 21 months,'' Jafarzadeh said in Washington.
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