Minister for Foreign Affairs Laila Freivalds on Iran's nuclear programme " I am very concerned about Iran's message to the IAEA that the country has decided to resume uranium conversion," says Minister for Foreign Affairs Laila Freivalds.

"If Iran does take this step it will be contravening the Paris Agreement and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board Resolution, both from November 2004.

"France, Germany and the UK put forward a new proposal for solving the issue on 5 August. I hope the negotiations will be able to continue. This is conditional on the Paris Agreement being respected," Ms Freivalds says.

This message was delivered to the Iranian Chargé d'Affaires today by Acting Director-General for Political Affairs Peter Tejler.

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Background There is widespread concern in the international community that Iran's nuclear programme may give the country the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Sweden shares this concern. Three European countries and the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, backed by the entire EU, have been negotiating with Iran for a considerable time in an attempt to reach an agreement that would include guarantees that the nuclear programme has exclusively peaceful purposes. The negotiations are based on an undertaking by Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and related activities as long as talks continue. It is this undertaking that Iran has recently said it intends to abandon.