French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Thursday Iran was pursuing a clandestine military nuclear program.
“No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. So it is a clandestine Iranian military nuclear program,” Douste-Blazy told France 2 television.
“The international community has sent a very firm message by saying to the Iranians: ‘Come back to reason. Suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium and the conversion of uranium,”’ he added.
“They are not listening to us,” Douste-Blazy said.
China, which like France is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, urged a diplomatic resolution of the standoff on Thursday, a day after the United States said Tehran was defying the international community by resuming enrichment.
Iran on Tuesday resumed feeding uranium gas into centrifuges for nuclear-fuel enrichment after a break of 2 and one-half years, stoking a diplomatic showdown with the West.
Douste-Blazy said the international community was united on the nuclear issue and that the Security Council would decide how to act after the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog submits a report on the situation in March.