Iran Will Not Halt Nuclear Program

TEHRAN — Iran on Sunday rejected European demands that it abandon sensitive nuclear activities but reiterated its readiness to provide assurances that its atomic ambitions were entirely peaceful.

Western diplomats say Britain, France and Germany have demanded Iran halt all parts of the atomic fuel cycle -- particularly uranium enrichment -- that can be used to make bombs.

The trio has proposed a draft resolution for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to consider today that would give Iran until November to dispel doubts about its nuclear program.

Asked about the move, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran had no intention of abandoning its efforts to master the nuclear fuel cycle.

“If the Europeans and the international community want assurances that nuclear technology will be for peaceful purposes, we are ready to give assurances,” Asefi said at a news conference. “But if the issue is that we cannot master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, that is out of the question because we have already reached that point.”

The trio’s draft would not order Tehran to be automatically reported to the United Nations Security Council if it did not meet the deadline, as Washington wished. But the draft would set a “trigger mechanism,” warning of possible “further steps” if Iran did not comply. Diplomats say the warning is shorthand for referral to the Security Council.

Washington alleges that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons; Iran denies this, saying its nuclear program is only for producing energy. Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for a reactor -- or, at a higher level, material for an atomic bomb.