1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Thursday, July 28, 2005
From the new World Media Watch up now at
http://www.zianet.com/insightanalyticalTomorrow at Buzzflash.com
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=17144 DEFIANT KHATAMI TELLS EUROPEAN UNION IRAN WILL RESUME NUCLEAR CONVERSION ACTIVITIES
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
TEHRAN: Iran will end a suspension of sensitive uranium ore conversion activities regardless of what proposals the European Union makes in the coming days to change its mind, President Mohammad Khatami announced yesterday.
"I hope that their proposals will, as agreed, allow for the resumption of
activities at Isfahan," Khatami told reporters, referring to a key nuclear plant in central Iran.
"But whether they do or not, we're going to resume the activities at Isfahan," added the outgoing reformist president.
Khatami, who hands over office to ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in early August, announced the decision after a Cabinet meeting and said it had been made at an earlier gathering of top leaders of the regime.
The president gave no date for the resumption of conversion, the process that turns uranium ore into a gas as a precursor to enrichment.
But Khatami said the "deadline" for ending the suspension was the end of July or beginning of August when the EU3 of Britain, France and Germany are supposed to submit a detailed package of proposals on the future of Iran's nuclear program.
(SNIP)