August 9, 2005

Atomic Activity Resumes in Iran Amid Warnings

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/international/middleeast/09iran.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print  (must register to NY Times to view original article)

By NAZILA FATHI and JOEL BRINKLEY

TEHRAN, Aug. 8 - Iran resumed sensitive nuclear activities at one of its facilities on Monday, despite warnings from European negotiators that the move would prompt them to refer the case to the United Nations Security Council for punitive action.

With surveillance cameras from the International Atomic Energy Agency installed, Iranian technicians at a facility outside Isfahan resumed the intricate process of converting uranium that Iran says is intended to yield energy but that the West worries is a precursor to the development of nuclear weapons.

The United States and its European allies reacted with dismay to the renewed activity, and left little doubt that they would take Iran to the Security Council with a recommendation for economic sanctions if Iran does not back down.

The State Department even held out the possibility that the United States might deny a visa to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was sworn in Saturday as Iran's president, to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month.

Iran has long contended that it has the legal right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to convert and enrich uranium for peaceful energy purposes, but agreed to suspend its activities as long as negotiations lasted with Britain, France and Germany over its nuclear program. Iran has admitted to deceiving inspectors for 17 years about many of its activities, and the United States argues that those deceptions effectively negate its right to a full nuclear program and that they provide a basis for international sanctions.

Concerned that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, European negotiators put forward a proposal last week - with the support of the United States - to provide Iran with economic, technological, security and political incentives if it permanently abandoned its conversion and enrichment activities.

But Iran rejected the proposal, saying the offer failed to meet its "minimum expectations." Even before rebuffing the offer, Iran had asked the agency to set up cameras at the facility so that it could resume its nuclear program under international inspection, as the nonproliferation treaty requires.

Mohammad Saidi, vice president of Iran's Atomic Organization, who was at the facility near Isfahan on Monday, said that Iran would like to continue negotiating with Europe and that it intended to keep its freeze on nuclear enrichment.

Yet the facility began an earlier stage of the process, known as conversion, the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported. Converting uranium can lead to energy production or, ultimately, nuclear weapons.

The French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, called the Iranian actions "a grave crisis." Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, told ARD television that the nuclear issue "will end up at the Security Council if Iran does not give in."

European diplomats said Iran would be presented with an ultimatum during a meeting of the agency's board of governors in Vienna on Tuesday: Cease the uranium conversion, or face sanctions. Although no timetable has been set for a response, officials and diplomats said the issue would probably be taken up during the United Nations meeting in September.

The three European nations that have been negotiating with Iran for two years, along with the European Union, threatened last week to end the talks should Iran resume its nuclear development. The European diplomats said they would follow through on that threat if Iran did not respond positively to the last-chance ultimatum that is to be issued after the meeting in Vienna.

"It definitely will end the negotiations," a European diplomat said. He and others declined to be identified before a formal position is taken at the meeting.

A senior Bush administration official said the United States would support a motion for United Nations sanctions, should Iran not back down. Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, said "this is Iran thumbing its nose at a productive approach" by the Europeans. "We'll have to work together to take a response."

Uranium conversion involves turning mined uranium, known as yellowcake, into a gas known as uranium tetrafluoride, or UF4. The gas is then turned into uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, which can be fed into centrifuges for enrichment. The process can lead to making nuclear fuel or, if enriched to high levels, weapons.

The Iranian news agency reported that yellowcake was injected into the equipment for making UF4 on Monday. It also said the rest of the facility would be operational after the agency's inspectors removed the seals at other sections and installed the cameras.

Iran's action on Monday was largely symbolic - the conversion of raw uranium into gas is many steps removed from making a weapon, and Iran says it possesses uranium in gas form - but it poses both a short- and long-term challenge to Europe and the Bush administration.

The immediate challenge is to determine if the European nations and the United States can now win over enough members of the agency's board to refer Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions. It is a risky political effort, both because the agency's board might balk, and because Iran has threatened to pull out of the nonproliferation treaty if it is subjected to sanctions. North Korea did exactly that two and a half years ago.

The longer-term challenge is to President Bush's effort to ensure that no new nations are allowed to produce enriched uranium or to reprocess plutonium, the two routes to making a nuclear bomb. In essence, Mr. Bush wants to break the "nuclear fuel cycle," the ability of a country to produce its own nuclear fuel, which could then be used for either civilian or military purposes. For that reason, the United States refused last week to go along with demands by North Korea that it be allowed to retain a nuclear reactor.

Iran has a large reactor under construction, though Washington has prevailed on Russia to take back the spent fuel that it sells to Iran. If that plan works, the fuel would not be available for bomb-making.

Iran argues that under the nonproliferation treaty it has a right to a civilian nuclear power program, and it points out that no one has ever proved that it is seeking to produce a nuclear weapon.

If the United States denies a visa for Mr. Ahmadinejad, the State Department said, it would be as much for his possible role in the taking of American hostages in Tehran in 1979 as for Iran's nuclear activities today. Thus far, the government has found no evidence to support the hostages' allegations that he was among their captors.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is planning to address the United Nations General Assembly to discuss Iran's nuclear program and other foreign policy issues, the Iranian news agency Fars reported.

A spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council said Monday that Mr. Ahmadinejad appointed a conservative politician to replace Hassan Rowhani, a pragmatic negotiator who led the talks with Europe for two years.

The new lead negotiator, Ali Larijani, was a security adviser to Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Last year he described Iran's decision to freeze its nuclear activities while it tried to reach a settlement with Europe as "trading a pearl for a lollipop."

Analysts in Tehran linked Iran's decision to resume work at the facility with the new president's policies.

"It seems that Mr. Ahmadinejad's team wants to reject the past policies in the first week that it is taking office," said Mohammad Hafezian, a political analyst in Tehran.

The previous team, he added, "would not have started work so unexpectedly and without coordination with the international community."

Nazila Fathi reported from Tehran for this article, and Joel Brinkley from Washington. David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Aspen, Colo.