Iran 'will resume some nuclear activities'

Iran insisted today it will resume some nuclear activities that were suspended in an attempt to gain international confidence, but indicated actual uranium enrichment won’t resume as long as talks between Iranian and European negotiators have not collapsed.

“We will resume some nuclear activities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. “What activities (will be resumed) or when is still under study. It will be announced in the future.”

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani said last week Tehran expects to restart some uranium reprocessing activities at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan within a week.

However, he added that the Islamic Republic was unlikely to resume actual uranium enrichment – injecting uranium gas into centrifuges – at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

Asefi said Iran’s top leaders had not yet come up with a firm date. He was adamant that Iran will not be injecting gas into centrifuges – the last stage of enrichment – anytime soon.

“The discussion now is not about resuming uranium enrichment but about carrying out some activities. (Actual) uranium enrichment will remain the last option after all other options have been exhausted,” Asefi said.

He did not elaborate, but Iranian and European negotiators have been trying to come to an arrangement that ultimately would defuse the nuclear crisis. Those talks have been progressing slowly, with Iranian warnings they were in danger of collapsing.