International Atomic Energy Agency

Iran warned Friday that if the International Atomic Energy Agency votes to report its nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council, Tehran will rebuff a proposed Russian compromise and start enriching large quantities of uranium on its own soil. The comments were made as 35 member nations of the IAEA board of governors deliberated for a second day a resolution to report Iran to the council. Russia's ambassador to the agency, which is the U.N.'

The United Nations' atomic energy agency voted overwhelmingly Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear program, and Tehran responded by announcing that it would restart efforts to enrich uranium, a procedure that could provide fuel for nuclear weapons as well as power plants. Hours later, President Bush warned that the international community was committed to stopping Iran from building an atomic bomb.

Iranian officials sent a letter to the United Nations nuclear agency Monday requesting that it remove by mid-month any seals and surveillance systems on Iranian facilities still being monitored by international inspectors. The letter also said Tehran would end all voluntary compliance with the U.N. group. Although Iran officially reopened its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz on Jan. 10, parts of the facility are still under seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

Diplomats in Europe said the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency had stripped most of its surveillance equipment from Iranian nuclear sites. The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential developments, said the move left the International Atomic Energy Agency with only the most basic means to monitor Iran's actions. Tensions between Iran and the international community escalated last month after Iran removed U.N.

In stark contrast to U.S. allegations against Iraq three years ago that were based on secret intelligence, today's suspicions about Iranian nuclear ambitions draw on evidence made public by a U.N. agency, the same one that found no case against Saddam Hussein. The information appears in a series of reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring arm, whose latest assessment of the material is due out early this week.

Re "Case Against Iran Differs From Iraq," Feb. 27 History has shown that technological advances in weapons always prove to have disastrous consequences. The United States has not lived up to its superpower ability to shape a better direction for all nations. Hard-fought gains in past conflicts such as World War II are beginning to look like they have been thrown aside. Now, after so much wasted effort, the world is beginning to fill up with factional regional nations, with nuclear weapons all set on a hair-trigger.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Sunday said his country stood ready to increase the scale of its uranium enrichment if its nuclear program was formally put before the United Nations Security Council this week.

The head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency and Germany's foreign minister urged Iran to halt all uranium enrichment work to help revive collapsed nuclear talks between Tehran and the European Union.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Friday that Iran had continued to defy Security Council demands that it freeze its efforts to enrich uranium, setting up a showdown between the international community and the Islamic Republic.

Iran began to enrich a second batch of uranium in its research plant this week on the same day that world powers offered it an incentive package conditioned on its suspension of nuclear activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report released Thursday. The timing of the nuclear work, which Western diplomats suggested was politically calculated, appeared to signal that Iran would fight to continue enriching uranium despite the demands by the global community.