Vienna, Austria - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency on Wednesday repeated calls on Iran not to implement plans to restart some nuclear activities before a monitoring system is in place.
Iran said it would resume uranium conversion at its plant in Isfahan, starting on Wednesday, sparking harsh criticism from the European Union, the United States and others.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged Iran not to break its seals at the plant until a surveillance system had been installed to monitor the nuclear material.
The agency has inspectors in Isfahan "on a routine inspection visit previously planned", agency spokesperson Melissa Fleming said, adding they would only begin "preparing for a restart of the conversion facility once the surveillance equipment has arrived".
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| 'We need to get our surveillance equipment in place' |
"We have made it clear that we need until the middle of next week to get our surveillance equipment in place before any seals could be cut and nuclear activities started," she said.
Iran had agreed with representatives from Britain, Germany and France to freeze uranium conversion until negotiations about the future of Iran's nuclear programme had been finalised.
Washington accuses Iran of trying to produce nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
France, Britain and Germany have said they plan to seek an emergency meeting of the IAEA board in coming days. The board can report countries to the United Nations Security Council, which in turn can impose sanctions.
The foreign ministers of the three countries and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, sent a letter to Tehran authorities, urging Iran to refrain from resuming conversion. The letter said EU negotiators would soon present a proposal with incentives offered in return for Iran dropping its uranium enrichment programme.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said he expected the European proposal to lead to a peaceful resolution of the issue. - Sapa-AP
- This article was originally published on page 2 of Cape Times on August 04, 2005
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