Iran hopes to resume atomic fuel work by early next week

Iran hopes to resume atomic fuel work by early next week, chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said on Wednesday.

"We hope to restart work by the beginning of next week when preparations are complete," he told state television. The week starts on Saturday in Iran.

Rowhani also hit back at a warning by the European trio of Britain, France and Germany that they will call in the next few days an emergency meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors.

"The three European ministers have said that if we restart (the Isfahan plant) this would mean the end of negotiations. This is a threat, this is unacceptable," he said.

"There is no judicial or political logic to send the issue to the Security Council, this would mean that the Europeans have given in to US pressure and they must assume the consequences," he said.

Earlier in the day, top nuclear negotiator Ali Aghamohammadi said that Iran hopes its uranium conversion work can be resumed on Wednesday.

"We hope that the seals on the Isfahan uranium conversion facility can be removed later in the day," Aghamohammadi, spokesman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told reporters.

Aghamohammadi's announcement came soon after new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office.

Tehran announced Monday that it would resume activities of uranium conversion facility in the central city Isfahan in reaction to the EU failure to present a long-awaited nuclear proposal before the deadline of Aug. 1 set by Iran.

Senior officials of the European Union, the United Nations and the IAEA have urged Iran not to resume the sensitive nuclear work and to come back to negotiations.

The United States and the EU also warned that the resumption would trigger the referral of Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

Source: Xinhua