(Updating with further details)
TEHRAN (AFX) - Iran warned Sunday it would resume sensitive nuclear work within days if the European Union failed to submit proposals aimed at ending a long-running crisis over its nuclear programme.
The move has dramatically raised the stakes in the standoff and risks seeing Iran hauled before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, a persistent demand of the US which accuses Iran of seeking atomic weapons.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran would inform the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Sunday or Monday of the resumption of some uranium conversion work, a key stage in the nuclear fuel cycle.
"The time limit (on the suspension of such activities) has passed and public opinion cannot wait any longer," Asefi said.
The conversion process, carried out in Iran at a facility in the central city of Isfahan, changes uranium ore into the uranium gas that is the feedstock for enrichment.
Although Iran has currently frozen its enrichment work, chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said Iran was capable of producing enriched uranium in a very short time if it came under attack.
"As soon as we decide to begin enrichment, we will be capable of reaching the desired goal in a very short time and in case our nuclear installations were attacked militarily, we could pursue enrichment unencumbered," Rowhani said in a report to outgoing President Mohammad Khatami published by the official news agency IRNA.
Iran agreed in November to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that makes fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but can also be the explosive core of atom bombs, during negotiations with the Europeans.
The British government, which is spearheading the EU-Iran talks along with France and Germany, warned that a threatened resumption of sensitive nuclear activities by Iran would be an "unnecessary and damaging step."
The Foreign Office said it was seeking "clarification of Iran's intentions" and urged Tehran to avoid any unilateral move which "would make it very difficult to continue" the negotiations with the European Union.
Britain also rebuffed an Iranian call for immediate new proposals from the so-called EU-3, saying "full and detailed proposals would be given to Iran in a week's time, in accordance with the decisions at the EU-3/Iran ministerial meeting in Geneva in May."
In Paris, a diplomat described the Iranian threat as "barely acceptable pressure that leads us to express our surprise and our concern."
bur-lal/sjw/bam
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TEHRAN (AFX) - Iran warned Sunday it would resume sensitive nuclear work within days if the European Union failed to submit proposals aimed at ending a long-running crisis over its nuclear programme.
The move has dramatically raised the stakes in the standoff and risks seeing Iran hauled before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, a persistent demand of the US which accuses Iran of seeking atomic weapons.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran would inform the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Sunday or Monday of the resumption of some uranium conversion work, a key stage in the nuclear fuel cycle.
"The time limit (on the suspension of such activities) has passed and public opinion cannot wait any longer," Asefi said.
The conversion process, carried out in Iran at a facility in the central city of Isfahan, changes uranium ore into the uranium gas that is the feedstock for enrichment.
Although Iran has currently frozen its enrichment work, chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said Iran was capable of producing enriched uranium in a very short time if it came under attack.
"As soon as we decide to begin enrichment, we will be capable of reaching the desired goal in a very short time and in case our nuclear installations were attacked militarily, we could pursue enrichment unencumbered," Rowhani said in a report to outgoing President Mohammad Khatami published by the official news agency IRNA.
Iran agreed in November to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that makes fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but can also be the explosive core of atom bombs, during negotiations with the Europeans.
The British government, which is spearheading the EU-Iran talks along with France and Germany, warned that a threatened resumption of sensitive nuclear activities by Iran would be an "unnecessary and damaging step."
The Foreign Office said it was seeking "clarification of Iran's intentions" and urged Tehran to avoid any unilateral move which "would make it very difficult to continue" the negotiations with the European Union.
Britain also rebuffed an Iranian call for immediate new proposals from the so-called EU-3, saying "full and detailed proposals would be given to Iran in a week's time, in accordance with the decisions at the EU-3/Iran ministerial meeting in Geneva in May."
In Paris, a diplomat described the Iranian threat as "barely acceptable pressure that leads us to express our surprise and our concern."
bur-lal/sjw/bam
COPYRIGHT
Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
AFX News and the AFX Financial News logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited
For more information and to contact AFX: www.afxnews.com and www.afxpress.com
© 2005 AFX News
