Iran blames EU for troubled nuke diplomacy after EU cancels talks

London (Platts)--24Aug2005

Iran Wednesday accused the European Union, which a day earlier said it
had canceled talks scheduled for August 31, of damaging diplomatic efforts to
resolve a crisis over its nuclear program. 
     A French foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday that Iran's decision to
resume work on nuclear fuel processing meant Tehran had broken the terms of an
agreement signed with Britain, France and Germany in Paris last November under
which Tehran voluntarily suspended the work pending the finalization of a
long-term agreement. 
     The EU through the three countries recently offered Iran nuclear
technology, including access to nuclear fuel, increased trade and help with
Tehran's regional security concerns. But Tehran rejected it because the
European proposal was conditional on Iran's ceasing uranium enrichment, which
can lead to the production of weapons-grade material. 
     Iran resumed uranium conversion, the precursor to enrichment. "Despite
the claims of the Europeans, it was not Iran that violated the Paris
Agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state news agency
IRNA Wednesday. "Isfahan has nothing to do with the enrichment," he argued.
"Activities in Isfahan are not a breach [of] the agreement." 
     Iran has been emboldened by reports that both UN and US experts had found
no evidence of clandestine atomic weapons activities. The Washington Post
reported Tuesday that a group of US government experts and other international
scientists had determined that traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years
ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and were not evidence
of a clandestine nuclear weapons program. 
     The French foreign ministry spokesman, meanwhile, said that while the
August 31 meeting had been canceled, "this does not mean that there will not
be any contacts with the Iranians." French foreign minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy said Aug 12 that France was waiting for a report from the
International Atomic Energy Agency on September 3 before deciding how to
proceed.
     Failure to agree could lead the Europeans to seek UN Security Council
sanctions against Iran. The US accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop
nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic energy program.

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