VIENNA (Reuters) – Malaysia has dismissed its envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog for voting against a resolution rebuking Iran and he will be replaced as rotating head of the agency’s governing body later this week.

The rare removal of a senior serving diplomat on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors underlined the volatile politics and high stakes in policymaking involving Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Malaysian Ambassador Mohd Arshad Manzoor Hussain, a 35-year diplomatic veteran, told Reuters he had been dismissed by his government after being recalled to Kuala Lumpur following the November 27 vote and several weeks of consultations.

Diplomats said the Malaysian government acted after the United States expressed concern to it over the envoy’s vote.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran says it has begun work to enrich uranium to a higher level, adding to concerns that it wants to stockpile potential material for nuclear weapons.

The following looks at the dangers of Iran’s move:

WHAT ARE IRAN’S MOTIVES?

Iran said it had acted in frustration at the collapse of a U.N.-brokered plan for big powers to provide it with fuel rods made from low-enriched uranium for a medical reactor.

VIENNA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iran has notified the U.N. nuclear watchdog it rejects key parts of a draft deal to send abroad most of its enriched uranium, designed to ease fears the material could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said on Tuesday.

It was Iran’s first apparently formal answer to the proposal hatched in October and echoed months of dismissive or ambiguous remarks made through the media. The United States rejected Tehran’s reply as “inadequate.”

U.S. intelligence agencies were finalizing a new assessment of Tehran’s nuclear program that sees Iran pushing forward with nuclear weapons research but not yet relaunching its bomb program in full, U.S. officials said.

Diplomats said Iran’s position on enriching uranium abroad was reflected in a memo in the hands of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It repeated verbal calls for amendments that Western powers had dismissed as non-starters but said did not amount to a final response.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has notified the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it rejects key parts of a draft deal to send abroad most of its enriched uranium to ease fears it could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said on Tuesday.

It was Iran’s first apparently formal answer to the proposal originally hatched in October and echoed months of dismissive or ambiguous remarks made through the media. The United States rejected Tehran’s reply as “inadequate.”

Diplomats said Iran’s position was reflected in a memo in the hands of the International Atomic Energy Agency and repeated verbal calls for amendments that Western powers dismissed as non-starters but said these did not amount to a final response.

Under the deal, Iran would transfer 70 percent of its stock of low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad and in return receive fuel for a medical research reactor. The deal aimed to reduce Iran’s LEU reserve below the quantity needed for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon, if it were enriched to a high degree of purity.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2nd L) visits the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, 350 km (217 miles) south of Tehran, April 8, 2008.

Iran hastened on Monday to deny an Israeli media report that it had suspended uranium enrichment for two months to mollify Western powers mulling more sanctions against Tehran over suspicions it wants the programme to yield atomic bombs.

But while diplomats agreed there was no evidence of a politically driven suspension, they believe the Haaretz report may be symptomatic of stagnation in the shadowy enrichment programme due to technical problems.

The report’s author was the veteran intelligence correspondent of Haaretz newspaper but it was thin, quoting only “Iranian media sources”, and lacking others to substantiate it.

LONDON (Reuters) – A leaked memo appearing to show Iran trying to design an atomic bomb trigger would undercut its assertion that it seeks only peaceful nuclear energy and harden fears it is nearing the capability to make nuclear weapons.

But caveats are in order. The memo in the hands of Western intelligence services and the U.N. nuclear watchdog has not been authenticated. Even if genuine, it may prove no more than a bid to develop competency for a possible nuclear “breakout” in the future, not an outright, illicit program to build bombs.

The following outlines the issues involved and where the International Atomic Energy Agency’s investigation into alleged military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear ambitions stands.

WHAT IS THIS MEMO AND WHAT DOES IT SAY?

LONDON (Reuters) – Intelligence suggests Iran worked on testing a key atomic bomb component as recently as 2007, diplomats said on Monday, a finding which if proven would clash with Iran’s assertion its nuclear work is for civilian use.

The diplomats commented on a Times of London report about what it called a confidential Iranian technical document describing a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the part of a nuclear warhead that sets off an explosion.

The Times, diplomats and analysts reached by Reuters said such a device had no conventional military or civilian use.

In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the semi-official Fars news agency the report was “baseless … Such statements are not worthy of attention. These reports … are intended to put political and psychological pressure on Iran.”

VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog voted Friday to rebuke Iran for building a uranium enrichment plant in secret but Tehran rejected the move as “intimidation” which would poison its negotiations with world powers.

The resolution was the first by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Iran in almost four years, and a sign of spreading alarm over Tehran’s failure to dispel fears it has clandestine plans to build nuclear bombs.

It passed by a 25-3 margin with six abstentions, smoothed by rare backing from Russia and China, which have blocked global attempts to isolate Iran, a trade partner for both, in the past.

But it was far from clear whether the West could now coax Moscow and Beijing to join in biting sanctions against Iran, something they have long prevented at the U.N. Security Council.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Six world powers are demanding Iran immediately mothball a uranium enrichment site it hid for years in a resolution to be voted on by U.N. nuclear agency governors, calling it a message to Tehran to change its ways.

A defiant Iran denounced the resolution, expected to be put to a vote on Friday, as “counterproductive” to diplomatic efforts to defuse a standoff over its nuclear ambitions and accused the powers of “politicizing” the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Diplomats forecast about two-thirds of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation governing board would approve the censure of Iran, the first such action in almost four years.

Developing nations in a bloc that includes Iran indicated they would vote “no” to the censure or abstain, they said.

VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Thursday criticized Iran’s blockage of a plan to divest it of possible nuclear bomb material as “disappointing.”

Under the deal drafted by Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran would send 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France. There it would be made into special fuel for a Tehran reactor making medical materials, which will run out next year.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief’s proposal, aimed at dispelling fears Iran could secretly derive bomb material from LEU, has foundered over Iran’s insistence on giving up no LEU until the reactor fuel reaches its soil.

This would defeat the goal of six world powers — Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Russia and China — of cutting Iran’s LEU reserves to less than the quantity needed to fashion a nuclear warhead, if refined to high purity.