Inspectors to Oversee Iran Nuclear Plant Restart

Parisa Hafezi, Reuters:

U.N. inspectors have arrived at a uranium conversion plant in Iran to install surveillance equipment and oversee the removal of seals as Tehran prepared to resume work there, an Iranian official said on Monday.

Such a move would bring the Islamic state into confrontation with the European Union, which has warned Iran it faces being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it restarts the plant near the central Iranian city of Isfahan. READ MORE

"The agency technicians have arrived at the uranium conversion facility to install surveillance cameras," the senior official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"Later, the seals will be removed," he added.

He did not specify when this would take place. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, has said it would take until mid-week to install equipment at the plant to monitor Iran's activities.

A Reuters journalist, among a small group of local and foreign reporters invited to visit the plant on Monday, said it was surrounded by dozens of anti-aircraft batteries, patrolled by heavy security and surrounded by barbed wire fences.

It is located in a dry industrial area about 20 km (12.5 miles) southeast of Isfahan.

Iran denies U.S. accusations that its nuclear programme is a front for bomb-making. It says it needs to develop nuclear power as an alternative energy source to meet booming electricity demand and preserve its oil and gas reserves for export.

It has offered to export the uranium hexafluoride produced at Isfahan to allay Western concerns that it could be enriched into bomb-grade material.

EMERGENCY MEETING

Britain, Germany and France have called an emergency meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors for Tuesday to warn Iran not to resume work at Isfahan.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Friday called on Iran to "listen to reason" and said if Iran resumed its nuclear activities, "the international community will surely bring the issue to the Security Council".

Iran on Saturday rejected a package of economic and political incentives presented by the EU's big three countries aimed at persuading Tehran to scrap nuclear fuel work for good.

Iranian officials said the EU proposal, which included offers of help to develop civilian nuclear energy and in becoming a major transit route for Central Asian oil, was unacceptable because it denied Iran the right to produce its own nuclear fuel for power reactors.

However, Iran has so far been careful to stress that it is not restarting work on the most sensitive element of the nuclear fuel cycle -- uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make reactor fuel or atomic warheads.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday Tehran had nothing to fear from referral of its case to the Security Council.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for three years after an exiled Iranian opposition group revealed the existence of undisclosed facilities there.

While the IAEA has highlighted numerous failures by Iran to report potentially weapons-related activities, it has found no "smoking gun" that would confirm U.S. suspicions that it is secretly trying to make bombs.