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U.N.: Uranium Brought To, Not Made in Iran
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
08/23/05 "The
Guardian" -- -- TEHRAN, Iran (AP)- Iran claimed vindication Tuesday after the U.N. nuclear agency concluded that traces of highly enriched uranium found on centrifuge parts entered this country on imported equipment and did not result from Iranian enrichment activities.
Hundreds of Iranian students, meanwhile, rallied outside the British, French and Germany embassies to protest the European call for Iran to permanently freeze uranium enrichment.
In Paris, the Foreign Ministry said those three countries would not hold nuclear talks with Iran on Aug. 31 because of Tehran's decision to resume operations at a uranium conversion plant.
The findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency supported Iran's contention that traces of enriched uranium entered the country along with centrifuge parts it bought from Pakistan.
The discovery of the traces in Iran had been cited by the United States to support its claim that Tehran has experimented with the production of highly enriched uranium, which is only used in nuclear weapons.
The traces were found two years ago on centrifuges at the uranium enrichment plant in the central Iranian city of Natanz and at the Kalaye Electric site, west of Tehran, raising questions about the motives behind Iran's nuclear activities.
Washington contends Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to secretly develop atomic weapons in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Tehran denies that, saying its nuclear program is designed only to generate electricity.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the IAEA findings vindicated Iran.
``Accurate scientific investigation by the IAEA has proved that U.S. accusations were unfounded,'' state-run television quoted Saeedi as saying.
Saeedi said the time has come for the West, including Europeans, to trust Iranian intentions.
``Given the fact that Iran has been cleared of the accusations and that its statements have been approved, there is no justification for Western countries not to trust Iran,'' he said.
About 500 students demonstrated at the British, French and Germany embassies. They chanted ``stopping uranium conversion is treason'' and ``uranium enrichment has to begin in Natanz'' as they marched from one embassy to the next in central Tehran.
The students accused the three nations of being ``puppets in the hands of America,'' and some demonstrators burned U.S. and Israeli flags.
Britain, Germany and France, which have negotiated with Iran on behalf of the 25-member European Union, have tried to persuade Iran to permanently freeze its uranium enrichment program in return for aid.
Iran rejected the proposal this month, saying it didn't recognize Tehran's right to enrich uranium under the nonproliferation treaty. Iran has said it is prepared to guarantee its nuclear program won't develop weapons but won't give up its sovereign right to enrich uranium.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Friday that Iran wants to enrich domestically mined uranium to produce fuel for its nuclear reactors so it does not have to depend on foreign suppliers.
After rejecting the EU proposal, Iran resumed converting uranium to gas, a step that precedes enrichment - an operation that can produce material usable both as fuel in nuclear reactors and as material for an atomic bomb.
The IAEA has urged Iran to against suspend conversion.
The Tehran regime says it wants to negotiate with the EU nations on starting enrichment. But France's Foreign Ministry said the Europeans would not hold talks at the end of the month as previously planned because of Tehran's decision to resume uranium conversion.
``There will be no negotiations Aug. 31, since the Iranians have decided to suspend application of the Paris Agreement,'' a ministry spokesman, Jean-Baptiste Mattei, said.
However, Mattei stressed that canceling the talks ``does not mean that there will not be contacts with the Iranians.''
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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