APPARENTLY tired of waiting for the European Union to come up with proposals for nuclear and economic cooperation, Iran announced last week that it was going to resume processing nuclear fuel at its Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan, a plant it voluntarily mothballed 20 months ago.
On 1 August, the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, as saying that Iran wants to develop “indigenous peaceful nuclear technology”. Iran has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to get ready to oversee the unsealing of the UCF, to “install additional surveillance equipment” and to verify the movement of uranium oxide around the plant.
The IAEA says the move could jeopardise diplomatic efforts by the EU designed to head off confrontation with the US.
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