Madam, - We, the ambassadors of the EU3 countries in Ireland, are writing in response to the article by the Iranian chargé d'affaires in your edition of January 31st.
Our Iranian colleague argues that international concerns that Iran's nuclear programme is not exclusively peaceful in nature are based on two false assumptions: first, that since Iran is a major oil and gas producer it has no need of a nuclear industry; and second, that since Iran is surrounded by nuclear weapons states it must follow suit.
Neither point is at the heart of the international community's concerns about Iran's programmes. No one is denying Iran's right to develop a civil nuclear programme. Indeed, last August the Europeans presented Iran with far-reaching proposals which, inter alia, reaffirmed Iran's rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and offered support for a civilian nuclear programme, and would have given Iran internationally guaranteed supplies of fuel for its nuclear power programme.
International concerns about Iran's activities are, however, based on Iran's history of concealment and deception of the true scale of its nuclear programme over a period of nearly two decades, as documented by the IAEA. They are not solely the concerns of Europe or the West, but of the whole international community, as the adoption of eight successive resolutions by the IAEA board demonstrates. In September 2005, Mohammed El-Baradei, director general of the IAEA, reported to the board that after "2½ years of intensive inspections and investigation, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue".
Iran's refusal to respect repeated requests by the IAEA board that it suspend all fuel cycle activities until international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme has been established has triggered this situation. The capabilities Iran is seeking to develop are not essential for the functioning of a civil nuclear power industry - of 31 countries in the world with nuclear reactors, only 10 have their own uranium enrichment capability - but they would allow Iran the capability to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
There is no rationale for Iran to resume enrichment activities now, since it has only one reactor under construction for which it has a long-term fuel supply contract. It currently has no concrete plans in place for construction of further reactors, only aspirations. International concerns have been heightened by President Ahmadinejad's calls for the eradication of the state of Israel.
Iran's continued refusal to respect the wishes of the IAEA board and its failure to co-operate fully with the IAEA challenge the authority of the IAEA, the credibility of the NPT and international non-proliferation system generally, as well the stability of the region.
That is why in London on Monday, European Foreign Ministers, together with Javier Solana and the Foreign Ministers of Russia, China and the US agreed that the time had come for this week's IAEA board meeting to report to the Security Council its decision on the steps required from Iran and that the Security Council should await the IAEA director general's report to the March meeting of the board before deciding to take action to reinforce the authority of the IAEA process. - Yours, etc,
STEWART ELDON, British Ambassador; FREDERIC GRASSET, French Ambassador; CHRISTIAN F PAULS, German Ambassador.