Iranian MPs are Sunday to debate a bill which would force the government to resume uranium enrichment in defiance of the international community, the official news agency IRNA reported.
“Ninety-three deputies have signed the bill,” said Rafaat Bayat, a conservative MP whose faction controls the 290-seat parliament, quoted by IRNA.
It calls for “an immediate halt to the suspension of uranium enrichment as well as to the voluntary implementation of the additional protocol” of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he said.
Iran’s pro-reform government agreed in late 2003 to suspend enrichment and signed the additional protocol allowing more intrusive inspections by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The decisions have been implemented without ratification by parliament, which has since fallen under the control of conservatives after most reformist candidates were banned from running in February elections.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, said Monday that Tehran was ready to consider a European request to maintain the enrichment suspension, ahead of renewed talks on the nuclear standoff in Vienna on Wednesday.
Three European states last week offered Iran a deal under which Tehran would receive valuable nuclear technology if it indefinitely suspended all uranium enrichment activities, a key stage in the nuclear fuel cycle.
The three – Britain, France and Germany – hope that if Iran agrees to the deal it will be possible to stave off US demands for the nuclear issue to be sent before the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
The two sides are Wednesday to meet again in the Austrian capital, where the IAEA is based, to hear Tehran’s response to their offer.
Depending on the level of purification, enriched uranium can be used either as fuel for a civilian reactor or as the explosive core of a nuclear bomb. Iran strongly rejects US accusations it is seeking to manufacture atomic weapons.
