Iran defies UN to break seals at nuclear plant

By Gareth Smyth
January 10, 2006
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/54ca6196-81c2-11da-aea0-0000779e2340.html

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Iran on Tuesday resumed research work on its nuclear programme, defying a warning from the five permanent members of the United Nations security council.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had begun removing seals at its Natanz facility under the supervision of agency inspectors.
But neither the IAEA nor Iran was able to confirm whether the resumed work will include the use of nuclear fuel in laboratory work. Mohammad El Baredei, the IAEA director general, said on Monday that the use of fuel, even in research, would cross “a red line for the international community”.
Iran suspended its nuclear programme two years ago to calm international fears it wanted atomic weapons, but has gradually resumed activities, including in August the conversion of raw uranium into feeder gas and now research and development. 
The main enrichment of uranium - the most sensitive part of the process and the one that produces fuel sufficiently enriched for power generation or possibly weapons - remains suspended. 
This step-by-step approach has been a means both to put pressure on the European Union, which has led negotiations with Iran, and to assuage domestic political opinion, which has moved to the right in recent times. Iran may also want to establish ‘facts on the ground’ that become part of a future settlement.
But the strategy has exasperated the west.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, who lead the EU side, are due to meet this week to discuss the crisis. Pressure is mounting to call an early meeting of the board of the IAEA, possibly to refer Iran to the UN security council. The board in September found Iran in “non-compliance” with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.
Iran's separate talks with Russia over the possibility of enriching uranium outside Iran are not due to resume until February 16. 
As a veto-holding member of the UN security council and a partner in Iran's Bushehr reactor, Moscow may now hold the crucial role in managing the growing crisis over Tehran's nuclear programme.