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Europeans warn Iran on nukes
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-12 19:53

France, Britain and Germany have warned Iran they will break off talks and join Washington in seeking U.N. Security Council action if Tehran makes good on its threats to resume atomic work, diplomats said Thursday.

The foreign ministers of the European Union's three biggest powers sent a toughly worded letter to Hassan Rohani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, warning that resuming potentially arms-related nuclear work "would bring the negotiating process to an end," an EU diplomat quoted the letter as saying.

"The consequences could only be negative for Iran," the letter said, implying that the trio would back U.S. calls to refer Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions or other actions.

In addition to the three foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana signed the letter, an EU diplomat told Reuters.

The letter proposed "ministerial level talks" between the Iranians, the EU trio and Solana within the next two weeks to break the impasse and avoid a crisis, the diplomat said.

The United States believes Iran's nuclear energy program is a front to develop atomic weapons and has been pressing for Iran's case to be sent to the 15-member U.N. council.

The EU shares U.S. suspicions but has offered incentives to try to get Tehran to give up its atomic fuel program, which Iran insists is only for nuclear power plants, not for arms.

WARNING FROM IRAN

Fed up with the slow pace of talks, Iran has warned the EU that time is running out and it will soon resume parts of its uranium enrichment program, which it is says is a sovereign right it will never abandon.

The new EU warning may have had an immediate effect. Officials close to the talks said Tehran might give talks with the EU one last chance rather than go ahead with plans to break U.N. seals and restart part of its nuclear fuel program.

Only a few hours earlier, a diplomat close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters the U.N. agency was expecting a letter from Iran saying just that.

Tehran's chief delegate to the IAEA, Sirus Naseri, arrived in Vienna Wednesday carrying a letter for IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei from Tehran, but he may not deliver it, diplomats close to the negotiations said.

One official said the Iranians had held meetings with the Europeans in recent days, fostering new hope for negotiations that began in November after Tehran agreed to suspend all activities linked to the enrichment of uranium.

Rohani told Iranian state television: "Iran will definitely resume a part of its (uranium) enrichment activities in the near future ... but we are still discussing its conditions and time of restarting the activities."

A senior diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters he was convinced Iran would not resume any enrichment activities until well after the country's June 17 presidential election.

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