Agence France Presse, TEHRAN – Iran’s leadership has decided to reject demands that it suspend uranium enrichment as part of an international proposal aimed at resolving a nuclear crisis, a senior official was quoted as saying Saturday.
"In the West’s proposal, two preconditions are raised: suspending nuclear activities and responding to the questions of the board of governors" of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli, the deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
"The leadership has reached the conclusion that it will not accept the precondition set by the Europeans," he was quoted by semi-official Mehr news agency, which is close to the Islamic republic’s top national security body.
Although a number of senior officials have over the past month spoken out against a freeze of enrichment, the comments from Rahmani-Fazli — the deputy of Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani — are the first indication that the regime has made a clear decision not to accept the demand.
Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to make reactor fuel, but the process can be extended to make weapons.
On June 6, Iran was handed a proposal — drawn up by Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — that offers trade, technology and other incentives if it agreed to freeze enrichment work.
In the absence of an Iranian reply, on Wednesday the so-called 5+1 group decided to send the matter back to the UN Security Council — which has the power to make a suspension legally binding and impose sanctions if Iran continues to refuse.
Iran resumed enrichment in January, and has already ignored a non-binding Security Council demand for the work to stop pending the result of an IAEA probe.
The Vienna-based agency says that — after more than three years of inspections — it is still not in a position to say whether Iran is seeking nuclear energy or weapons.
