Iran Decides to Resume Parts of Nuclear Program

New York Times:

By NAZILA FATHI

and CHRISTINE HAUSER

TEHRAN, Aug. 1 - Iran notified the International Atomic Energy Agency today that it has decided to resume some aspects of its nuclear program, Iranian officials and the agency said. The I.A.E.A. said in a statement that the Iranians would resume uranium conversion activities at a plant in Isfahan. In Iran, officials announced that they were going to break the seals on the facility that had been put there by the I.A.E.A., but there was no specific time given for actual resumption of the work.The agency said that it now needed to install surveillance equipment at the facility prior to any resumption of work and said it informed Iran not to start up operations until the new equipment was in place.

Iran also said it would continue to maintain its voluntary suspension on enrichment activities, and that it was prepared to continue to negotiate to resume them. Britain, Germany and France were to present an incentive proposal in an effort to persuade Iran to maintain the suspension of its uranium enrichment program. Last November, Iran agreed to suspend its enrichment-related activities until the Europeans presented their proposal.

The decision by Iran to resume activities drew a response from the I.A.E.A. director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, who called on Iran to continue the negotiation process and not take any action that might "prejudice the process at this critical stage," when the three European countries, referred to as the EU3, were due to deliver a package of security, political, economic and nuclear issues.Hamidreza Assefi, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that today was the end of a deadline given to a European Union team to submit proposals, according to the IRNA news agency. He said that I.A.E.A. inspectors are in Tehran but that it would take them a few hours to travel to Isfahan, in central Iran, to monitor the resumption of activities