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Iran threatens to end freeze on uranium enrichment
A senior Iranian envoy suggested Wednesday that Tehran's partial freeze on uranium enrichment might come to an end, despite U.S. and European pressure to renounce the process and end fears that his country wants to make nuclear arms. Both Washington and the European Union want a commitment from Iran to stop enrichment, and their delegations to a board of governors meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog agency have been working on a resolution that would demand Tehran agree to such a freeze.Iran is not prohibited from enrichment under its obligations to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but it has faced mounting international pressure to suspend the technology - which can be used both to make nuclear arms or generate electricity - as a gesture to dispel suspicions it is interested in making weapons as claimed by Washington. Iran is the focus of a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the United States seeking European support to have Tehran taken before the UN Security Council if it defies the demand for an enrichment freeze and other conditions meant to dispel suspicions about Iran's nuclear agenda. A U.S.-European rift, which surfaced earlier in the meeting on the wording of the draft resolution, led Wednesday to an adjournment of the board meeting until Friday to allow back-room negotiations and consultations with capitals. Still, copies of both the U.S. and European drafts showed both sides favoring some kind of deadline for Iran to commit to a new freeze on enrichment - and at least an implicit threat of referral to the Security Council if Tehran remained defiant. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-16 |
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