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Iran to resume nuclear work

Iran, which has failed to reach a deal to abandon its research program, says it can no longer keep its scientists in limbo.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran told the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency Tuesday it planned to resume nuclear fuel research after a 21/2-year hiatus, issuing a fresh challenge to Western nations concerned that Tehran is trying to build an atomic weapon.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said it was important that Tehran "maintains its suspension of all enrichment-related activity" as a way of reducing international suspicions about its nuclear plans.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said research would "resume in cooperation and coordination with the IAEA in the next few days," adding that it would "have little to do with the production of nuclear fuel."

Beyond that, he would not specify what type of research Tehran planned but said its nuclear program had suffered significantly during the research suspension. He said Iran could no longer keep its research scientists in limbo.

Iran has said it remains determined, at some point, to resume uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, told lawmakers Tuesday that he had abandoned a previous policy of trying to mollify the West because it had proved fruitless, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The Tuesday announcement, while vague, was certain to raise further concerns in the United States and among its European allies who believe Iran wants to build a nuclear arsenal. Tehran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation.

ElBaradei also called on Iran to "build confidence and enable the resumption of dialogue with all concerned parties."

The Iranian mission to the IAEA said Tehran has decided to resume from Feb. 9 research and development "on the peaceful nuclear energy program which has been suspended," ElBaradei told the agency's board.

The United States later warned Iran against pursuing new nuclear research. "We strongly oppose Iran proceeding with any further enrichment-related activities," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "Our view is that if Iran takes any further enrichment-related steps, the international community will have to consider additional measures to constrain Iran's nuclear ambitions."

The EU has previously said that any decision by Iran to resume work on its uranium enrichment program would be "the red line" that would end European attempts to negotiate differences with Iran.

Furthermore, the EU has said a resumption of work on the program would revive attempts to take Iran to the U.N. Security Council for violating the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

Iran has come under heavy international pressure from the IAEA and the West to abandon its program to produce fuel for its Russian-built nuclear reactor that is due to come online this year and for its future nuclear power plants.

Iran has vowed it will never give up the right to produce nuclear fuel, which it says is guaranteed by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

While refusing to permanently renounce uranium enrichment, Iran suspended many aspects of its nuclear fuel program in 2003 as a goodwill gesture during negotiations with the big three European powers, Britain, France and Germany.

The talks collapsed in August after Iran resumed uranium reprocessing activities, a step before enrichment, at its Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, central Iran.

While the two sides resumed dialogue last month, talks have so far failed to resolve the dispute. More talks are scheduled for later this month.

Iran's decision to resume nuclear research coincided with the announcement by Asefi that Iran would reject a U.S. and European-backed Russian proposal to end the dispute if it required Tehran to cede the right to enrich uranium at home.

"The Russian proposal is ambiguous. We have to talk to the Russians to see what are the details," Asefi told reporters.

"If it means enrichment be carried out (only) in Russia, we have said it is not acceptable. But if it is a complementary plan, we will study it," Asefi said.

Extremists within the increasingly hard-line Iranian government have denounced the Russian proposal as a "dirty trick."

The United States warned Iran against pursuing new nuclear research Tuesday, rejecting assurances that the work was not a cover for a secret drive to build a nuclear bomb. "We strongly oppose Iran proceeding with any further enrichment-related activities," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "Our view is that if Iran takes any further enrichment-related steps, the international community will have to consider additional measures to constrain Iran's nuclear ambitions." McCormack would not specify what action the United States would like to see, but reiterated the U.S. view that Iran will eventually be hauled before the U.N. Security Council if it will not back down. The council can impose harsh economic sanctions. "Iran is trying to pursue nuclear weapons under the cover of a peaceful nuclear program," McCormack said, in one of the most direct accusations the United States has made. "We don't think that that should be allowed to happen."

[Last modified January 4, 2006, 01:08:07]