TEHERAN, August 4 (RIA Novosti, Nikolai Terekhov) - Iran is interested in resuming uranium enrichment within the framework of negotiations with the European Union, Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rouhani said Thursday. Rouhani sent a message to the "EU Three" (Great Britain, France, and Germany) saying Iran was interested in continuing talks with the EU on the resumption of uranium enrichment. Rouhani said the EU's threats against Iran were inadmissible.
In particular, the European Union threatened to convene a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if Teheran resumed work at its Isfahan nuclear facility. He said such actions contradicted the accords reached in Paris and Geneva.
Teheran announced it was ready to resume uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility and officially notified the IAEA of its intentions. The EU said such a move would mean Iran's withdrawal from the moratorium on uranium enrichment and threatened to end negotiations with Iran and convene a special IAEA session to discuss transferring the Iranian nuclear file to the UN Security Council.
Iranian authorities say resuming uranium enrichment does not mean the end of the moratorium because their facility does not actually enrich uranium.
On August 1 Iranian officials reiterated their intention to resume work at the Isfahan nuclear facility within the next few hours or days. These statements provoked a negative response from the United States and the European Union. However, Iran is not resuming enrichment under different pretexts.
Local experts say Iran is using "extreme diplomacy" to get maximum concessions from the EU. The "EU Three" promised to submit by Saturday a draft of proposals to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program.
