Iran progressing on nuclear efforts

WASHINGTON – Despite the threat of new sanctions, Iran is advancing work at its largest nuclear facility and has informed international inspectors in writing that it will not comply with a United Nations order to suspend the program, according to U.S. and European diplomats familiar with the inspectors’ latest findings.

The U.N. Security Council on Dec. 23 set a 60-day deadline for the Tehran government to halt its nuclear work. Since then, Iran has installed nearly 400 centrifuges, in two separate lines, at its uranium enrichment facility in the town of Natanz, according to several officials who agreed, on the condition of anonymity, to discuss details from the inspectors’ report, which is due today.

The report to the Security Council will confirm, the officials said, that Iran is flouting the council’s resolution and moving ahead with its efforts to enrich uranium.

U.S., British and French officials said they will respond to Iran’s defiance by pressing for additional economic sanctions, including an enforced travel ban on senior Iranian officials, asset freezes, and an end to government-backed loans and credits. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet today in Berlin with German, Russian and European colleagues to discuss the possibility of imposing those new sanctions.

“The Iranians have unfortunately not acceded to the international community’s demands, and we will have to consult. We will have to decide how to move forward,” Rice told reporters Wednesday.

Rice said talks with Iran were possible on the condition that it suspend its nuclear program first.

But diplomats in Washington and at the United Nations acknowledged Wednesday that they expect weeks of struggle with Russia, China and members of the European Union, all of which are ready to reopen talks with Iran even if it does not first halt the nuclear program.

A senior European diplomat said it is not a foregone conclusion that “we will go down the sanctions lane,” adding: “There are quite a number of European Union countries who believe we should go easy because there seems to be an opening on the Iranian side.”

Iran has said repeatedly that it wants to return to negotiations with Europe and Russia and even hold talks with the United States, but that it would not halt its nuclear program as a precondition.

Iran says that its nuclear program, which began in secret in 1987, is for the production of energy and not weapons and that the nation is within its rights, as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to develop nuclear fuel.