Iran goes ahead with uranium enrichment while keeping talks open

Iran seems determined to go ahead with its plan to resume uranium enrichment, while maintaining talks open, especially on a Moscow proposal to enrich Iran's uranium on Russian territory.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Monday that Tehran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its decision to resume full-scale uranium enrichment.

He did not specify a date for starting enrichment. Inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog will visit Iran in the next few days to oversee the process.

Larijani made the statement after an IAEA resolution to report Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.

Tehran toughened its stance also by suspending all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, including future snap inspections by the UN of its nuclear sites required by the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The head-on clash between Tehran and the IAEA sparked strong responses from the United States and its staunch ally Israel.

On Monday, a leading U.S. senator urged the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran if it "does not comply with UN resolutions and arms agreements."

"Failing to do so will severely damage the credibility of a painstaking diplomatic approach and call into question the world's commitment to controlling the spread of nuclear weapons," warned

Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Iran would pay "a very heavy price " if it defiantly resumes full-scale uranium enrichment to build nuclear weapons.

"At the end of the day, it shows that Iran will pay a very heavy price if it continues with its plans to try and enrich its fuel in order to be able to use it as an option to make non-conventional weapons," he warned.

The confrontation, however, also has its soft side.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday that his country was still willing to solve nuclear dispute through negotiations.

The Itar-Tass news agency quoted another government spokesman of Iran, Gholamhossein Elham, as saying on Monday that Iran welcomes contact on any proposal in the nuclear area that would serve its national interests and the talks with Russia may continue.

The official was making a positive response to an announcement by the Russian Foreign Ministry that the Tehran-Moscow consultations remain unchanged on a joint venture to enrich Iran's uranium in Russia.

"Our invitation to the Iranian side for the consultations on Feb. 16 certainly remains valid," the ministry said in a statement.

The Russian proposal is widely seen as a way out amid rising tensions.

Diplomacy is also being heard from the United States and Israel.

While threatening UN sanctions, Sen. Lugar stressed that the United States still favors a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

He also made it clear that the U.S. government does not favor Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

In Washington, Israel's Ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon said that international diplomacy in the next few months could curb Iran's suspected nuclear ambitions and played down the possibility of Israeli military action.

"All this notion that the situation is predestined or cannot be stopped ... it's not true. They have not crossed the point of no return," the ambassador said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the European Union, which has been negotiating with Iran on the issue, China and Russia are all urging Iran to use the month before the next IAEA board meeting on March 6 to answer the agency's outstanding concerns about its nuclear ambitions and return to the negotiating table.

"Both the Iranians and the other parties negotiating have indicated that this is not the end of the road," Annan said.

"There is still time to negotiate," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said, repeating the call for Iran to "suspend sensitive nuclear activities."

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya said, "Even with the adoption of the IAEA resolution, it is believed by most member states that diplomatic solution is a way out with the frame of the IAEA."

"China prefers to have the EU-3 (Germany, Britain and France) continue the negotiation with Iranians to find a long-term solution on this issue," he added.

The IAEA Board of Governors voted 27-3 with five abstentions on Saturday to approve an EU-drafted resolution to report Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.

Source: Xinhua