Iran Defends Its Nuclear Stance as IAEA Meets

Confronting an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran on Tuesday vigorously defended its right to pursue nuclear energy programs and European diplomats said they intended to offer Tehran one last chance to back down.

But there was no sign that Iran’s new hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, intended to reverse his decision to restart the uranium conversion plant at Esfahan. Instead, Iran said it would break the seals on the mothballed areas of the plant now that IAEA cameras were in place to monitor the process.

Conversion is an early step in processing uranium for use in nuclear power plants -- or atomic weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for generating electricity, but some Western nations fear it is trying to build weapons.

Britain, France and Germany have been trying to negotiate a deal with Tehran to ensure it won’t make nuclear weapons. But the IAEA meeting in Vienna was called after talks faltered and Iran lifted its voluntary freeze on nuclear activities, including uranium conversion.

The IAEA’s board of governors will meet again as early as Thursday to debate what action, if any, would be taken. European diplomats circulated a mildly worded resolution that would call on Iran to resume its freeze on uranium processing and return to negotiations. The text did not threaten to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

“There is no tough language,” a Western diplomat said. “The words ‘Security Council’ do not appear in the draft.”

In comments carried by Iran’s official news agency, Ahmadinejad said he was ready to negotiate. But he repeated Iran’s complaint that Europe’s latest proposal to end the nuclear crisis was “an insult.”

France, Britain and Germany had proposed guaranteeing a supply of fuel for the civilian nuclear power plants Iran is building, as well as offering economic incentives. In return, they demanded that Tehran forswear the sensitive nuclear fuel-cycle technology that could be used to produce material for atomic bombs.

Two diplomats in Vienna said the European proposal to Iran had alienated some nonaligned countries whose support would be needed to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, as the Bush administration and the Europeans want to do unless Iran agrees to keep its nuclear programs at a halt.

Under a November 2004 agreement signed in Paris, Iran pledged to stop its nuclear activities -- including uranium conversion at Esfahan as well as uranium enrichment at its Natanz plant -- while negotiations continued. Both processes are necessary to produce the material needed for power plant fuel or bombs.

Iranian officials say the Europeans are trying to rewrite the Paris Agreement by demanding a permanent freeze on those nuclear fuel-cycle activities. Tehran is warning other countries that if Iran could be denied the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, so could other signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The argument appears to be resonating.

“Many countries recognize that Iran has a right to enrichment, and the [IAEA] board never said suspension has to be permanent,” said the Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second diplomat, from an Asian country belonging to the nonaligned movement, added, “Our position has been that Iran has a legal right to enrich uranium.

“There is fear among our members that if the Europeans and Americans can take away Iran’s right to enrichment, they can do it to the rest of us when the time comes,” he added.

Iranian Ambassador Sirous Nasseri told the IAEA board Tuesday that Tehran would restart the Esfahan plant but would maintain its voluntary suspension at Natanz. Nasseri argued that Iran had broken no rules and that the West had no legal right to refer it to the Security Council.

“The IAEA does not think it is a crisis yet,” the Western diplomat said. “As long as they are not enriching uranium, there is ample time for negotiation.”

President Bush, in a brief appearance at his ranch in Texas, said that if Iran’s president was truly willing to return to negotiations, that would be “a positive sign.” But in a clear display of the hands-off American approach on Iran, Bush deferred to Britain, France and Germany, known as the EU-3. “If the Iranians continue to balk, we’ll work with the EU-3,” Bush said.

White House officials said Bush was reacting to news reports that Iran was willing to continue talks and had had no back-channel negotiations with the Iranians.

Nasseri noted that the board met as the world was remembering the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and criticized the United States.

“It is the most absurd manifestation of irony that the single state who caused this single nuclear catastrophe in a twin attack on our Earth now has assumed the role of the prime preacher in the nuclear field while ever expanding its nuclear weapons capability,” he said.

Meanwhile, a leading Iranian dissident claimed that Tehran had secretly produced about 4,000 gas centrifuges, which are crucial to the uranium enrichment process.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, who heads a Washington-based political think tank, Strategic Policy Consulting, said the centrifuges had been produced by firms in Tehran and Esfahan.

An IAEA spokeswoman in Vienna said the agency knew Iran had assembled and tested 164 gas centrifuges but had no knowledge regarding the far larger program.

Efron reported from Washington and Frantz from Istanbul, Turkey. Times staff writers Edwin Chen in Crawford, Texas, Tyler Marshall in Washington and special correspondent Elisabeth Penz in Vienna contributed to this report.