Iran issues threat over nuclear talks

IRAN will resume uranium enrichment if negotiations with European nations over its nuclear programme fail this week, Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian foreign minister, said yesterday.

Speaking after a meeting with Ben Bot, the Dutch foreign minister, Mr Kharrazi said today’s talks were "very critical to see if the European side is quite serious about coming up with an agreement".

"If talks with the European Union are not successful, negotiations will collapse and we will have no choice but to restart the uranium enrichment programme," he said.

France, Britain and Germany have been negotiating with Iran, seeking guarantees it will not use its nuclear programme to make weapons, as Washington suspects. Tehran insists the programme - kept secret for two decades - is only for peaceful energy purposes.

Iran agreed in November to freeze uranium enrichment, but insists the move is temporary. Negotiations are scheduled to resume in London today.

Mr Kharrazi said Iran is not willing to accept what he called "delay tactics" by the Europeans and that his country has a right to nuclear technology.

However, Mr Bot said Europe wanted "objective guarantees that Iran’s uranium programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes".

Iran has argued that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, of which it is part, allows it to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme.