TEHRAN - Iran may delay the resumption of some of its sensitive nuclear activities, state television reported Friday, after the Islamic republic was warned it risked being hauled before the UN Security Council.
"It is possible that this resumption is delayed for a while," Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, a vice president and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted as saying.
He nevertheless said that a resumption of certain nuclear activities tied to the conversion of uranium ore was "certain", but did not give any date.
Contacted by telephone, Iranian nuclear negotiator Cyrus Nasseri said that negotiations at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were continuing.
A spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the body charged with handling nuclear diplomacy, said Iran still wished to officially inform the IAEA that it was backing away from its freeze of uranium enrichment-related activities.
However the spokesman, Ali Agha Mohammadi, also did not give a date for a possible resumption.
"Iran is determined to submit to the IAEA a letter that concerns a resumption of a part of our suspended activities," he was quoted as saying.
He also said Iran was giving Britain, France and Germany - with whom the suspension was agreed in November 2004 - until the end of the day to "change their position" demanding Iran abandon fuel cycle work altogether.
"Iran's rights cannot be trampled on... because of the threats of three countries and a big power," he said, referring to the EU-3 and the United States.
Mohammadi also repeated that "Iran is not afraid of its case being sent to the UN Security Council."
Iran had warned Thursday that it could "momentarily" resume conversion work at Isfahan.
But in a letter to Tehran, Britain, France and Germany warned that any violation of their accord under which Iran froze its sensitive fuel cycle work -- the focus of suspicions of a nuclear weapons drive -- would have "consequences" for the country.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said that would entail supporting "referral to the UN Security Council if Iran breaches its undertakings and obligations".
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