Iran reconsidering uranium enrichment suspension

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran will resume some nuclear activities it suspended under world pressure and is considering restarting the uranium enrichment, its top nuclear official said Saturday, defying a resolution from the U.N. nuclear watchdog that rebuked Iran for past cover-ups in its nuclear program.

Iran also rejected demands by the U.N. group to stop building a heavy water nuclear reactor and halt operations of a nuclear conversion facility in central Iran.

"Iran will reconsider its decision about suspension and will do some uranium activity in the coming days," Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani said.

Rowhani did not say what activities would be resumed. Chief among the suspended activities was the building of parts for centrifuges used in the enrichment process.

Resuming uranium enrichment could spark a crisis in international attempts to resolve questions of Iran's nuclear program. The United States accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran insists its program is peaceful, aiming only to produce energy.

On Friday, the IAEA passed a resolution rebuking Iran for not cooperating enough in the probe into its nuclear program.

The European-drafted resolution said the IAEA "deplores" that "Iran's cooperation has not been as full, timely and proactive as it should have been" -- angering Tehran.

Rowhani said Iran would continue to work with the IAEA and allow inspections of its facilities.

"If they (the IAEA) have any ambiguities, problems or want to visit sites, they can raise it with us and we will solve it," he said. "We won't lose our patience toward inspections. The more they inspect, the more the world will learn Iran has not diverted from a peaceful nuclear path."

He said Iran would inform the agency on any resumption of activities.

"Whether we are going to resume enrichment -- meaning injecting gas into centrifuges -- we haven't decided yet," he said. "Perhaps we will continue suspension of injecting gas into centrifuges for some time, but we will end suspension of some other measures in the coming days."

Last year, under IAEA pressure, Iran suspended enrichment and some other activities and opened facilities to inspections. In a deal for the suspension, Britain, Germany and France promised to make it easier for Iran to obtain advanced nuclear technology.

Rowhani accused those countries of breaking what he said was their promise to help close the Iranian nuclear issue at the IAEA.

In February, according to Rowhani, the three European powers promised to work toward closure by June if Iran stopped making centrifuges, as it did in April.

"The promise was broken by the Europeans. Therefore, we can't be committed to our promise," he said.

A top lawmaker said Saturday that the Iranian parliament may not approve unfettered inspection of Iranian facilities by IAEA.

"IAEA's continued negative stance ... would give the parliament extra reason not to approve the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the head of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi as saying.

Under the protocol, Iran has to agree to unfettered inspection of its nuclear facilities without prior notice. Iran's government has approved it, but it cannot become law without parliament's approval.

The IAEA said Iran still needs to answer questions relating to the sources of enriched uranium, including weapons-grade samples, found in Iran and the scope of Iran's centrifuge program.

The IAEA has also questioned work at the Iranian nuclear plants at Arak and Isfahan.

"The work at Isfahan and Arak is not up for bargaining," Rowhani said. "Iran has already made its decision about Isfahan and Arak and the work will continue."

Iran is building a heavy water reactor at Arak, and its plant at Isfahan, which has already been opened, has a nuclear conversion facility to process yellow cake uranium into gas.

Rowhani dismissed accusations that Iran had been running and then razing parts of an undisclosed site next to a military complex in a Tehran suburb.

"Excluding from the sites we have openly declared (to IAEA) ..., Iran has no other places for enriching uranium," Rowhani said.