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Iran's foreign minister asserted Wednesday the Islamic republic had a "legitimate right" to enrich uranium, the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle that the country is under pressure to abandon. "We will lobby for our rights in the international community to deal with the negative atmosphere our enemies have created against Iran," Kamal Kharazi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. "We will never allow the enemy to trample upon our legitimate rights enshrined in the international conventions," he added. The European Union's "big three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- have been pressing Iran to cease working on the nuclear fuel cycle in exchange for increased trade and cooperation and the guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel from abroad. Such work is permitted under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but the concern is that once fully mastered, a country possessing such technology can easily divert it into military usage. Many diplomats believe that even if Iran may not be working on nuclear weapons now, it would like to have the option in the future. Iran denies charges it is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran has agreed to temporarily suspend enrichment pending the completion of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) probe, but is working on other parts of the fuel cycle and has recently resumed making centrifuges used for enrichment. Talks in Paris last week between the three European nations and Iran ended with "no substantial progress" being made in efforts to restrict Iranian activities. "There has been absolutely no agreement that Iran would stop enriching uranium, since enrichment is our legitimate right," Kharazi said. "We will continue negotiations with the European countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and members of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)," he added. He said Iran needed to "clarify our programme to them and make it clear that Iran needs nuclear energy to go ahead with its economic development plan." "We should wait and see. We will not allow the Iranian file to be referred to the Security Council. We will enlighten the world community about Iran`s nuclear program and I hope that we will defuse the propaganda campaign against Iran," he added. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last Thursday that it was "more and more likely" that Iran would be referred to the UN Security Council as a possible prelude to sanctions. The United States has accused Iran of wantonly flouting international calls to curb its nuclear activities, saying Tehran is engaged in a "direct challenge" to the IAEA. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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