Iran Raises Stakes in War of Nerves Over Enriching Uranium

Iran warned yesterday that it would consider taking "illegal" steps, including possible abrogation of the non-proliferation treaty, if further UN sanctions are imposed because of its nuclear program.

The warning was given by a senior Iranian official in an increasingly fraught war of nerves with the US and its allies over Iran's enrichment of uranium.

However, it was accompanied by an olive branch, a promise by Iran's chief negotiator to give a comprehensive account of its nuclear past to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

Tehran has made clear that it will not suspend enrichment as the UN security council has demanded, despite two earlier rounds of financial, travel and arms sanctions. A decision on a third round has been put off until September. "If there is another resolution, we will react with whatever we have," the senior official told western journalists. "So far we have answered legally, limiting [UN] inspections, and reducing cooperation with the IAEA within the legal framework.

"But if there is no legal option left, it is obvious we will be tempted to do illegal things. What is very important to us is our dignity, and we are prepared to act."

Iranian officials made it clear that one option was a formal break with the treaty and a total severance of relations with the IAEA, like North Korea in 2003.

However, said the senior official, unlike North Korea Iran had no intention of building a nuclear bomb, even though he claimed it had now installed enough uranium-enriching centrifuges to make one.

He argued it would make Iran less secure, and pointed out that both the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, and his successor, the current supreme leader, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, had issued a religious fatwa against possessing the bomb."We can exit from the non-proliferation treaty, but we can never exit from a fatwa," he said.

His comments came only hours after the chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, promised that Iran would finally answer all the IAEA's unresolved questions about its nuclear activities. "All the areas and all the questions will be answered. We have no problem with that," he said in an interview in Tehran. Those outstanding issues include an Iranian explanation for how its officials were found to have instructions on how to form enriched uranium into hemispheres, of the sort used in a nuclear bomb.

Mr Larijani laughed off the significance of the documents. He said: "I would find it strange for someone to make a bomb with a couple of pieces of paper. If a country wanted to make a bomb, it could get the information on the internet."

Iran also agreed yesterday to allow UN inspectors to visit a heavy water reactor being built near the central town of Arak. The visit, the first in four months, will be early next week, according to the deal reached in Vienna.

The concessions carry out an agreement in principle with the IAEA this month, and appear to be part of an Iranian effort to fend off a new round of sanctions. In response, debate on those sanctions has been quietly shelved until next month.

However, the rapprochement does not address Iran's right to enrich uranium, which Tehran sees as inalienable, and which the security council views as a proliferation risk. Last month, the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, suggested to Mr Larijani a "time out" under which Iran would stop expanding its uranium enrichment, and in return, new sanctions would be suspended. Iranian officials said yesterday the offer had been rejected because it was valid for only a month, after which Iran would have to suspend enrichment again. Mr Larijani, head of Tehran's supreme national security council, made it clear however that Iran might consider a longer time out. "I clearly said this idea could be raised as one of various ideas in the negotiations. In talks with Mr Solana we had a number of ideas to solve this problem," he said.