- Iran has issued an extraordinary list of demands to Britain
and other European countries, telling them to provide advanced nuclear
technology, conventional weapons and a security guarantee against nuclear
attack by Israel.
-
- Teheran's request, said by British officials to have
"gone down very badly", sharply raises the stakes in the crisis
over Iran's nuclear programme, which Britain and America believe is aimed
at making an atomic bomb.
-
- Iran's move came during crisis talks in Paris this month
with senior diplomats from Britain, France and Germany.
-
- The "EU-3" were trying to convince Iranian
officials to honour an earlier deal to suspend its controversial uranium
enrichment programme, which is ostensibly designed to make fuel for nuclear
power stations but could also be used to make fissile material for nuclear
bombs.
-
- Iranian officials refused point-blank to comply, saying
they had every right under international law to pursue "peaceful"
nuclear technology.
-
- They then stunned the Europeans by presenting a letter
setting out their own demands.
-
- Iran said the EU-3 should support Iran's quest for "advanced
(nuclear) technology, including those with dual use" - a reference
to equipment that has both civilian and military applications.
-
- The Europeans should "remove impediments" preventing
Iran from having such technology, and stick to these commitments even if
faced with "legal (or) political . . . limitations", an allusion
to American pressure or even future international sanctions against Iran.
-
- More astonishingly, Iran said the EU-3 should agree to
meet Iran's requirements for conventional weapons and even "provide
security assurances" against a nuclear attack on Iran.
-
- This is a reference to Israel's nuclear arsenal, believed
to include some 200 warheads and long-range missiles to deliver them.
-
- The EU-3 are still debating over how to respond, but
British officials said the Iranian letter was "extremely surprising,
given the delicate state of process". Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary,
will have to decide whether to adopt a more confrontational policy.
-
- America is demanding that the board of governors of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which meets next month, refer
Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. US officials are
also openly discussing "covert" means of disrupting the Iranian
nuclear programme, while Israel has openly threatened military action.
-
- However, there were signs yesterday that the next report
of Mohammed ElBaradei, the IAEA director general, may give Iran a boost.
-
- A key mystery for the past year has been the source of
traces of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) found by IAEA inspectors at several
sites in Iran. Teheran claimed this was "contamination" of equipment
imported from other countries, rather than proof that it had secretly made
HEU.
-
- According to diplomats, inspectors have confirmed that
in at least one case the contamination did come from Pakistan, as Iran
claimed.
-
- Other contamination issues remain unresolved, and may
never be settled. Moreover there are several other open questions.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid
- =EA02UAQFRWOTLQFIQMGCM54AVCBQUJVC
- ?xml=/news/2004/08/11/wiran11.xml&sSheet= /news
- /2004/08/11/ixworld.html
|