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Iran rebuffs EU call to freeze N-activities

* Says US spy drones crashed in its territory

TEHRAN: Iran rebuked the European Union on Tuesday for calling on it to freeze nuclear fuel activities, insisting it had a clear right to develop a full civilian nuclear energy programme.

“The EU’s statement was surprising. We suggest the Europeans change their behaviour toward Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state television. The European Union urged Iran on Monday to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) September resolution calling on Tehran to halt uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant.

Iran broke UN seals at the Isfahan plant in August and began converting tonnes of uranium into a gas that can be enriched to make nuclear reactor or bomb-grade fuel. Iran says it will never make atomic bombs and only wants to use nuclear technology for electricity generation.

“Iran will never abandon its nuclear fuel cycle,” Asefi said after a closed-door meeting of Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki with ambassadors from the European Union and from member states of the IAEA board of governors.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani wrote a letter to the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France this week calling for fresh talks with the EU trio. The EU has said it is studying Iran’s offer of new talks.

Nuclear negotiations between the two sides broke down in August and the EU three have said they will not return to the negotiating table until Iran halts work at Isfahan. In an interview with the BBC aired on Tuesday, Larijani said Tehran would not be intimidated into backing down.

“The resumption of activities at the nuclear conversion plant at Isfahan is a sign that Iran is determined to master nuclear technology. Through a language of force and threats you cannot persuade Iran to give up this right,” he said.

Meanwhile, accusing Washington of violating its sovereignty through illegal overflights, Iran said on Monday it had found the wreckage of two US unmanned spy planes on its territory in recent months. “Iran strongly protests against such unlawful acts and emphasises the necessity to observe the principles of international law concerning the sanctity of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states,” its Foreign Ministry said. The Pentagon had no immediate comment to the protest. agencies

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