Iran’s new president sworn in amid nuclear spat

Financial Times:

By Gareth Smyth in Tehran and Guy Dinmore in Washington

Published: August 2 2005 03:00 Last updated: August 3 2005 09:30

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, a fundamentalist conservative, became Iran's new president on Wednesday, amid mounting international pressure on Tehran over its threat to resume suspended nuclear fuel cycle activities.

Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s sixth president, won last month’s election as an unabashed ‘fundamentalist’, arguing for renewal of the social egalitarianism of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. His role model was Mohammad Ali Rajaei, the president assassinated in 1981 who was popular for his piety and simple life.

This is a huge personal challege for Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, at 49, his main administrative experience has been as mayor of Tehran since 2003, and earlier as governor of Ardebil province in the north-west. As president, he will rely on links to power, especially those leading to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader with the last word on matters of state.

Mr Ahmadi-Nejad takes over the government as Iran edges closer to possible UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear plans. In his address on Wednesday Mr Ahmadi-Nejad made no specific mention the nuclear issue but said “Elements of global threat including weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological, which are now in the hands of the hegemony must be eradicated.”

The US and European Union on Tuesday raised the pressure on Iran over its threat to resume suspended nuclear activities, warning Tehran that they were seeking a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency and would break off negotiations if it reactivated a mothballed facility.

A tough letter to Hassan Rowhani, the chief Iranian negotiator, from the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK – the so-called EU3 – warned that unilateral resumption of uranium conversion processes at the Isfahan facility “would terminate our dialogue”. The EU3 and Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, urged Iran not to end the suspension of its nuclear fuel cycle development reached under the Paris agreement last year, saying continued dialogue could lead to a “new chapter on our relations”.

The Bush administration added its weight to the warning. A US official said there was “absolute unanimity” between the EU and US on reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, following an IAEA board of governors meeting, if Iran broke the suspension agreement. However, the US official said that should Iran “relent” then there would be no need for a special board meeting.

The IAEA said it had not received a formal request by the EU3 to call an extraordinary board meeting.

The EU reminded Iran that it would present a new package of proposals by August 7. The letter said this package would encompass “co-operation on political and security issues as well as in economic and technological areas”. It also stated the EU’s willingness to support “a safe, economically viable and proliferation-proof civilian nuclear programme in Iran”.

Iran had specified Monday as the deadline for the EU to present these proposals. But in its letter to the IAEA, announcing that Tehran would restart converting raw uranium into gas, it left open the possibility of deferring action by saying it would take place under IAEA supervision. IAEA inspectors are in Isfahan, monitoring the suspension. But they do not have the equipment to monitor a resumption of uranium conversion.

■ An Iranian judge, Hassan Moqaddasi, who sentenced several dissidents to jail, was shot dead on Tuesday by a gunman riding a motorcycle, writes Najmeh Bozorgemhr in Tehran. Mr Moqaddasi presided over the trial of journalist Akbar Ganji, imprisoned in 2001 following stories he wrote linking officials to the murder of intellectuals. Mr Ganji is on hunger strike.