EU, allies demand Iran resume freeze

The EU and its allies will ask the UN nuclear watchdog yesterday to demand Iran halt sensitive atomic work it resumed this week while stopping short of asking the UN Security Council to take action.

Diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were debating a draft resolution yesterday that expressed "serious concern" over Iran's resumption of uranium conversion, but left open the possibility of more talks on the crisis.

The resolution, drawn up by Britain, Germany and France, said the agency cannot confirm that Tehran has declared all its nuclear materials and activities. But it made no mention of reporting the regime to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose crippling sanctions.

The text, which was to be reviewed later yesterday by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, noted that "outstanding issues relating to Iran's nuclear program have yet to be resolved, and that the agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."

It expressed "serious concern" over Iran's resumption of uranium conversion this week at its nuclear facility at Isfahan, saying the move "underlines the importance of rectifying the situation ... and of allowing for the possibility of further discussions in relation to that situation."

The measure requested IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to provide the board with a comprehensive report on Iran's compliance with an agency safeguards agreement by Sept. 3.

Some developing countries worry that a measure banning Iran from producing its own nuclear power plant fuel by converting and enriching uranium could be applied to their nuclear programs, too.

``The enrichment issue is one of the problems we are talking about,'' the diplomat said.

Enriched uranium can be used to produce energy or to make weapons, depending on the degree to which it has been enriched.

Negotiations on how to rebuke Iran started on Tuesday when the board met for an emergency session. Although the IAEA board has the power to report Tehran to the Security Council, diplomats made clear they were not considering that step and instead were holding out hope for a negotiated end to the standoff.

On Wednesday, IAEA inspectors watched as Iranian workers removed IAEA seals at the plant in Isfahan. Workers were set to resume the final steps of conversion, a process that precedes enrichment.

Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. But the US and others fear Iran could use its program to build bombs -- concerns fueled by past revelations that Iran concealed 18 years of nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment.

The EU said in a statement it does "not believe that Iran has any operational need to engage in fissile material production activities ... if the intentions of its nuclear program are exclusively peaceful."

But Iran's chief IAEA delegate, Sirus Nasseri, argued earlier that all countries should be permitted to produce their own nuclear power plant fuel to prevent being "dependent on an exclusive cartel of nuclear fuel suppliers -- a cartel that has a manifest record of denials and restrictions for political and commercial reasons."

Reacting to the draft resolution, Ali Aghamohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said resuming the suspension would make no sense.

"Resuming the suspension is meaningless. The process of talks with the EU, proved that suspension of our activities was not a solution," he said in Tehran. "Resumption of the Isfahan plants' activities does not mean breaking the game. It was just for getting out of the nuclear impasse."