Iran not worried about Security Council referral

Parisa Hafezi, Reuters:

Iran insisted on Sunday it would resume uranium conversion this week after rejecting EU incentives to end its nuclear fuel work, and said it was not worried about being referred to the U.N. for possible sanctions.

"Although we think referral of Iran's case to the Security Council would be unlawful and politically motivated, if one day they refer Iran's case...we won't be worried in the least," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.

Britain, Germany and France, heading nuclear negotiations with Iran for the European Union, have called an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors on Tuesday to discuss Iran's case.

The EU trio say they will recommend referring Iran to the Security Council if it goes ahead with plans to break U.N. seals and resume work at the Isfahan uranium conversion plant.

Iran, which on Saturday rejected an EU package of economic and political incentives designed to persuade it to halt nuclear fuel work for good, says it will restart the Isfahan plant as soon as IAEA surveillance equipment is in place.

"The European proposal has no value," state television quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying.

"We will insist on our rights and have decided to resume Isfahan activities as the first step of our measures. This does not mean we will stop negotiations with Europe."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Iran faced economic sanctions if it refused to accept the EU proposals.

"I don't think anyone at the moment is thinking about a military confrontation," he told ARD television.

"If Iran doesn't back down, one has to expect it will be referred to the Security Council. If that happens we will be talking about possible sanctions. This would not be good for either side. Therefore I have to say I am very worried by Iran's apparent decision to choose a course of confrontation."

ADDITIONAL CAMERAS

Asefi, speaking at a weekly news conference, said IAEA technicians would be at the Isfahan plant on Monday to install additional cameras.

He said the 35-page EU proposal, which contained an offer of help with developing a civilian nuclear programme, was rejected because it did not recognise Iran's right to enrich uranium. Iran's official reply will be delivered to the EU on Monday.

"I suggest that the Europeans avoid the language of threat," Asefi said. "The only way is to encourage Iran and respect its rights."

Hardline newspapers declared the EU proposal worthless.

"Their proposal is an empty box in beautiful wrapping," Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily said. "If Iran agrees to it, it will be deprived of the nuclear fuel cycle forever and it would be an everlasting scandal for Iran."

Iran says its nuclear programme is solely designed to produce much-needed electricity and is not, as Washington insists, a cover for making atomic bombs.

It says that as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has the right to produce fuel for reactors, a process that can also be used to make bomb-grade material.

The hardline Kayhan newspaper, which has long called for Iran to kick out U.N. inspectors and withdraw from the NPT, on Sunday argued that Iran was in fact not a member of the treaty since parliament had not ratified it. READ MORE

Iran's new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at his swearing-in ceremony on Saturday, said Iran would not be intimidated by threats from the West.

A religious conservative fiercely loyal to the ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad is expected to adopt a tougher position on the two-year-old nuclear negotiations with the EU, analysts and diplomats say.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the EU's proposed incentives for Tehran included backing Iran as a key transit route for oil from Central Asia -- the first time an EU politician had acknowledged such an offer was made.

"Our offer is substantial," Douste-Blazy told Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview. "We are making proposals to the Iranians on energy, such as becoming major actors in the transport of oil between Central Asia and Europe via Iran." (Additional reporting by Amir Paivar in Tehran, Paul Carrel in Paris and Nick Antonovics in Berlin)