Iran still plans nuke enrichment
Foreign Desk Report

VIENNA—Iran is pushing ahead with plans to enrich uranium in defiance of international pressure to give up sensitive nuclear technology to allay fears that it is seeking a nuclear bomb, diplomats and intelligence sources say.
Such plans could jeopardize a Russian attempt to head off a confrontation over Iran, through a compromise proposal under which Tehran would maintain a civilian nuclear program but transfer enrichment to Russia under a joint venture.
Enrichment is the most sensitive stage of the nuclear fuel cycle. It can be used to make fuel for bombs or power plants. “I think they want to do it soon,” a European diplomat told reporters. “The million-dollar question is when”.
Diplomats and intelligence officials, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week, said Iran was preparing to start enrichment at its underground plant in Natanz. The United States and other Western countries say Natanz
anchors a covert nuclear weapons project and have threatened to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran says it aims only to generate nuclear energy and its right to a full nuclear cycle on its soil is non-negotiable, although it has also said it would study Russia’s initiative. A four-page confidential intelligence report given to Reuters cited a “senior Iranian Foreign Ministry source” as saying that on October 24 the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, called an emergency meeting of current and former members of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team.
“One of the cardinal issues raised at the meeting was the timing for activating the centrifuge site at Natanz. The former and current negotiating teams weighed the various options for the timing of the Natanz operation,” the report said. The report, given to Reuters by a diplomat on condition of anonymity, did not say when work at Natanz would start. Participants at the meeting discussed the technical measures needed to be taken before the plant went on line and what to do once the move had been announced, the report said. “They are not going to do this secretly,” the diplomat said. “They will do it openly as they did with Isfahan”.
Iran resumed conversion of uranium ore at its Isfahan plant in August, causing the collapse of talks with France, Germany and Britain, the so-called EU3, who had been trying to convince Tehran to give up potentially weapons-related nuclear work. Moscow has proposed Iran be allowed to continue to process uranium ore at Isfahan but ship the gas produced there to Russia for enrichment. The Natanz plant would remain mothballed. The idea has won backing from the United States, and diplomats said talks could resume in December with the EU3 if Iran were ready to discuss the Russian proposal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board decided on Thursday not to refer Iran to the Security Council in order to give Russia time to broker a compromise. But Western states on the board said Tehran had a long way to go to earn international trust about its intentions.