France: Iran may trigger major international crisis

Middle East Online:

2005-08-02

French PM warns Iran must honour its nuclear deal commitments or face UN Security Council retribution.

PARIS - Iran's decision to resume its nuclear activities may spark "a major international crisis" and a forceful response from the UN Security Council, France said Tuesday in a sign of increasing EU pressure on Tehran.

"The Iran matter seems very serious to me - it may trigger a major international crisis because, if Iran doesn't go back on its decision, then Iran will be, I would say, in a purely unilateral position," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Jacques Chirac.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin warned that Iran must abide by a deal with the European Union to suspend its nuclear programme or face UN Security Council retribution.

"Iran must honour the commitments it has made. These commitments are commitments suspending all activity, conversion, treatment and enrichment of uranium," Villepin told Europe 1 radio just before the cabinet meeting.

If Tehran refuses, "the international community will be forced to draw conclusions... with consensus, with dialogue," he said.

"And the Security Council will be called on if Iran refuses to comply."

Iran on Monday told the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that it would imminently resume uranium ore conversion, the precursor to enrichment in the nuclear fuel cycle.

The resumption was in breach of a deal with France, Britain and Germany under which Tehran agreed to suspend its nuclear activities in return for trade benefits. The United States fears Iran wants to use its nuclear programme to build atomic bombs.