Brussels, 01/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - While the EU-3 (Germany, France and United Kingdom) is to hand over its package of “concrete proposals” for technological, commercial and political cooperation shortly after the new Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, takes up his post on 3 August, the Iranian nuclear dossier took a disturbing turn on Sunday. After having blown hot and cold for more than a week with ever more contradictory statements, Teheran suddenly set an ultimatum for Berlin, London and Paris on Sunday, demanding to receive the package of EU-3 proposals that same afternoon, failing which it would launch its ultra-sensitive uranium conversion activity from Monday on, the first step towards heavy metal enrichment that could result in the construction of an atomic bomb. The Iranian ultimatum took European chancelleries by surprise: unofficially, the Europeans had set 7 August as the date for handing over their package of proposals and foreseen that the negotiation steering group composed of the political foreign affairs leaders should meet on 30 August in Paris before a ministerial meeting in New York in September, on the fringe of the United Nations general assembly. Such a scenario has now little chance of happening. Berlin, London and Paris nonetheless replied on Sunday evening that they would not give way to this ultimatum.
According to diplomats in Vienna, Teheran addressed a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday morning asserting that the seals placed on the Ispahan plant would be removed that same day and that the uranium conversion activity would resume from Monday evening on under IAEA control. The spokesperson for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Agha Mohammadi, nonetheless said on State television that Iran was willing to postpone resumption of conversion activities if the European Union agreed to negotiate on the subject of Teheran's right to master the nuclear combustion cycle and uranium enrichment. “We were adamant in speaking to Javier Solana (the EU's representative for CFSP) that, if the EU-3 wanted postponement till Sunday (…) it should withdraw the letter addressed to the IAEA secretary general stating that the Europeans will not negotiate with Iran on the subject of enrichment”, he said. Later on Monday morning, the Iranian foreign minister gave his assurance that Teheran would only grant the EU one more day in which to present its proposals.
On Sunday, London warned Teheran against this “futile and harmful” initiative which would contravene the Paris agreement of last November. In Paris, the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, deplored this “unacceptable form of pressure” when the EU-3 is preparing a “generous offer” with “proposals recognising the rights of Iran under NPT and the possibility of developing a safe, economically viable and non-proliferating nuclear programme” as well as a “pact of non-aggression providing Iran with guarantees regarding its integrity and national sovereignty”. The European Commission, for its part, said it hoped a “negotiated solution” would be found and recalled that any resumption of conversion activity would be in breach of the Paris agreement and would compromise the trade discussions with Iran, which are an integral part of the package of European proposals.