EU's Ashton concerned at Iranian plans for advanced atom work

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Iran to abandon its expressed intention to speed up nuclear work, saying that would violate the Islamic republic's international obligations.              

Iran has announced plans to install and operate advanced uranium enrichment machines, in what would be a technological leap allowing it to significantly speed up activity the West fears could be put to developing a nuclear weapon.                            

"We have learned with serious concern that Iran has informed the IAEA about its intention to install advanced centrifuges," a spokeswoman for Ashton said.                              

For her part, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the window for negotiations with Iran about its nuclear program cannot stay open for "too much longer," but she declined to provide a deadline.                                        

"I don't think the window can remain open for too much longer (but) I am not going to put days, weeks or months on it," Clinton told a small group of reporters on the eve of her departure from the State Department.                             

The United States and its Western allies suspect that Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop a bomb. Iran denies this, saying its program is for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and medical isotopes.               

Iran has refused to set a date and venue for fresh talks with six major powers on its nuclear program, a reluctance that Clinton ascribed to "a lot of disagreement within the highest levels of the regime about how to handle this" as well as to  political jockeying ahead of Iran's June presidential election.                        

"They will decide to meet or not to meet based on their own internal calculations," Clinton said. "They have an election coming up in June. People are jockeying to see who the supreme leader is going to anoint to be the next president.                  

"They are preoccupied with their internal political calculations and that's far more important to them right now than setting a date and a time" to meet the six major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.                  

Clinton, who is to be replaced by Senator John Kerry on Friday, said President Barack Obama had never given up on the idea of engaging Iran but she stressed this was only one side of its dual-track policy with economic sanctions as the other. 


REUTERS