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Outrage greets Iran nuke decisionWorld running out of patience, says IAEA head
 Foreign Minister Asefi had announced Iran was ready to start research Monday. RELATEDYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSTEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The international community has reacted with outrage to the announcement by Iran that it would resume its nuclear research program, saying Tehran would face consequences if it carried through its plan. "I am running out of patience, the international community is running out of patience," Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Sky News. "The credibility of the verification process is at stake." German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country has joined Britain and France in trying to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear program, said that there were "very, very ominous signals" from Tehran and that a move by Iran to resume uranium enrichment would violate the agreement it reached with the three countries, known as the EU3. "That cannot remain without consequences," Steinmeier said. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said Iran's decision to resume nuclear research was "the wrong step in the wrong direction and a cause of very serious concern." In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said an emergency meeting of the IAEA board of governors was possible. He said the United States had enough votes to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, but was giving "every possible chance" for talks among Iran, the EU3 and Russia to work. "But ultimately, given Iran's track record on seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program, defying the international community, bobbing and weaving, obfuscating, ... we're ultimately all going to end up in the Security Council on this issue," he said. Earlier in the day, an Iranian government spokesman said Iran was set to resume its nuclear research program. "Nuclear research will be resumed in Iran today in the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) representatives," Gholam-Hossein Elham said. "Resumption of research is not subject to legal prohibitions. It was suspended voluntarily." The announcement came a day after Iran's foreign minister said scientists would remove IAEA seals at some nuclear research and development sites and resume operations under the supervision of the agency. The research and development facilities were not specified. A senior U.S. State Department official said the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in recent days had all warned Iran not to make good on its threat, and to return to the negotiating table with the European Union. "We have coordinated very closely with the Russians, Chinese, French and British to deliver very similar messages to the Iranians over the past several days," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. At the State Department briefing, McCormack was asked if he believed Iran would actually carry through with its threat: "If you look back at the statements from this regime in particular, they have in fact followed through on what they said that they were going to do." It would be the second time Iran has removed seals put in place by the IAEA. In August, the country unsealed equipment at its Isfahan plant and resumed uranium conversion activities there. Officials have said Iran will maintain a suspension at its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Uranium conversion is a first step towards uranium enrichment, which could lead to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Iran's hard-line conservative government insists its nuclear programs have peaceful aims, and it has the right to restart nuclear facilities and enrich uranium for the production of nuclear energy. Other nations, however, including the United States, fear Tehran's true goal is to produce nuclear weapons. Those fears have only been reinforced by recent comments by Iranian Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be wiped out. -- CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott contributed to this report. 
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