Nuclear confrontation 'has reached a climax'

Confrontation with Western states over Iran’s nuclear programme has reached a climax, a former Iranian president said today.

Iran will press ahead with its nuclear development despite the “colonial taboos”, ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani, who now heads the powerful Expediency Council, told state-run radio.

Hours later the British, French and German foreign ministers announced in Berlin, Germany, that they would call for a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency to decide on referring Iran to the UN Security Council.

After issuing a joint statement that accused Iran of a “documented record of concealment and deception”, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters “the time has come for the UN Security Council to become involved”.

Steinmeier said talks between the three EU powers and Iran had reached a “dead end”, indicating that negotiations with Iran scheduled for January 18 would not take place.

However, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who attended the Berlin meeting, told the press conference that he would not rule out further negotiations with Tehran.

Iranian state radio and television did not initially report the European decision, but in a late night bulletin Thursday the television broadcast pictures of the Berlin press conference with comments by the British and German foreign ministers.

The newscaster added: “All Iranians are united in pursuing the nuclear programme.”

The channel then screened interviews with several people in the street and three university professors, who all said Iran should continue the programme.

The interviews appeared to have been conducted before the European decision was announced.

There was no immediate response from the government.

Previously, however, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi has repeatedly said Iran is not worried about the threat of UN sanctions as such measures would hurt the Europeans more than Iran.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed support for the European move, saying the United Nations should demand a halt to Iran’s nuclear programme.

Iran’s move had “shattered the basis for negotiation”, Rice said.

Rafsanjani said Iran’s stand-off with the West “has become very serious and has reached its climax”.

He did not elaborate on what the confrontation entailed, but he reiterated that Iran would continue developing its nuclear technology, which it says is for generating electricity.

The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

On Tuesday, Iran broke UN seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming research that does not involve enrichment.

The IAEA, however, said in a statement that Iran planned to carry out small-scale enrichment.

Rafsanjani said his country had decided to “ignore colonial taboos” to make use of advanced technology that the West is denying to the Third World.

He did not name any country.

Rafsanjani, who was president of Iran in the 1990s, lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the run-off elections last June.

In the election, he ran as a moderate, compared to the ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad.

But the nuclear policy is a point of national pride for many Iranians.

It is perhaps the only issue that is supported by both sides of the reformist-conservative divide.