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Iran Ignores Pleas to Halt Uranium Work

(Washington Post) Dafna Linzer - Iran began converting a new batch of uranium at a key nuclear facility Wednesday, rejecting international pleas to suspend such work and dismissing a new offer - sponsored by Russia - designed to ease tensions over the country's nuclear ambitions, U.S. and European officials said. The Iranian moves threatened to derail efforts to set up a meeting next week between European and Iranian officials to reinvigorate negotiations. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, canceled a planned trip to Tehran. The IAEA board meets in Vienna on Nov. 24 to discuss Iran's program. For more than two years, the Bush administration has been unable to persuade allies to send the Iranian nuclear case to the UN Security Council, where the country could face economic sanctions for failing to disclose a nuclear energy program built in secret over 18 years. David Albright, a nuclear expert and the president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said Iran's move was "mostly symbolic," but the Iranians will "end up with a larger stock" of converted uranium that they can store away for the day when their own enrichment facility is completed. If that happens, Iran could wind up with enough bomb-grade uranium for as many as eight weapons, he said.
2005-11-17 00:00:00
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