Tehran - P.I.N. - K.Soltani - 2004/06/20 14:59
TEHRAN - Iran said on Sunday it will reassess its obligations to the European Union to halt assembly of centrifuges used to enrich uranium. "Iran agreed to suspend assembly of centrifuges and parts in exchange for the European efforts to have Iran nuclear dossier closed. But the Europeans broke their pledges and they tarnished our moral commitments," the Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told a weekly news briefing.
Assefi, however said, Iran does not yet intend to resume the highly sensitive enrichment process itself.
"The question of resuming enrichment has not been raised," Assefi told reporters. "The question that has been raised is that of the assembly of parts, and we will announce our decision in the coming days."
Iran's top national security official and nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, had on Saturday reacted angrily to being slapped with yet more criticism from the UN's nuclear watchdog and had said the Islamic republic's suspension of enrichment would be reviewed.
Uranium enrichment is a major preoccupation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has pressured Iran into halting its work on the nuclear fuel cycle while UN inspections are still in progress.
The IAEA is investigating allegations that Iran is using a bid to generate atomic energy as a cover for top secret weapons development, and has discovered traces of highly enriched uranium (HEU) at least three sites here.
Enriching uranium can be aimed at producing both fuel for a nuclear reactor or for a nuclear bomb. Under pressure from the IAEA and following the intervention of Britain, France and Germany, Iran agreed in October last year to suspend enrichment and related activities while the IAEA probe continued.
A resumption of enrichment would spark a major crisis with the IAEA, and even the resumption of work on other parts of the nuclear fuel cycle would raise fresh alarm at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.
Iran, however, is angry at the Europeans because they had pledged to help Iran normalize relations with the IAEA if Tehran cooperated. Iran insists it has met its side of the bargain, although the IAEA disagrees.
"We had agreed to expand the scope of the suspension of enrichment to include the production of components (for centrifuges) and their assembly," Assefi said.
"Given that the Europeans have not kept their promises, our moral obligations are in question," he added. It was the three European countries that pushed the IAEA resolution through on Friday.
The spokesman once again blamed the United States for trying to bring Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council in order to impose sanctions on the Islamic state, saying however that these efforts had failed again "even in the new resolution".
Assefi reiterated that Iran would continue cooperation with the IAEA but would not accept limitations on the country's legitimate right to achieve peaceful nuclear technology.
Assefi also condemned as "inhumane" the killing in Saudi Arabia of US defense worker Paul Marshall Johnson, but said the United States' "wrong" policies were to blame.
"The murder of a person is always unacceptable for us," he told reporters. "This is an inhumane act, but we must not forget that all this violence and this hate is increasing because of the wrong policies of the United States in its war against terrorism," he added.
"By continuing their policies, the US is not only failing to reduce terrorism, but increasing it. "Johnson was beheaded despite last-minute pleas to spare his life, including an impassioned appeal by the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest shrine, for an end to attacks on non-Muslims in the oil-rich kingdom.
The death of the 49-year-old US national, who worked with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, triggered a wave of anger in the United States with officials from President George W. Bush down vowing to avenge it.
The beheading was attributed to Al-Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who was one of four militants gunned down Friday night in a gunbattle with Saudi security forces.
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