Iran rejects EU demand to halt nuclear fuel cycle activities

Khaleej Times:

8 November 2005

(DPA) TEHERAN - Iran on Tuesday rejected a demand by the European Union to halt all nuclear fuel cycle activities in the Islamic republic, state news television IRIB reported.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi told IRIB that the EU demand was “surprising” and called on the EU to revise its ”unconstructive approach”.

In a draft declaration issued in Brussels Monday, the EU urged Iran to reinstate “a full suspension of all fuel cycle activities, thus allowing negotiations with the European side to resume”.

“Iran will not make any compromise on its legal and legitimate right (of having its own nuclear cycle),” Assefi said.

The demand came as Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki on Tuesday briefed foreign diplomats in Teheran on Iran’s nuclear programmes in what many see as a further conciliatory gesture to a hostile international community.

Fars news agency reported that the ambassadors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board member states were invited to the foreign ministry in advance of the IAEA board that is scheduled to meet on November 24.