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Iran threatens to block nuke inspections
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-13 18:25
Iran threatened on Friday to end all voluntary cooperation with the U.N.
nuclear watchdog if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible
sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
addresses the United States government's concern with the recent
developments in Iran, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006, at the U.S. Department of
State in Washington. Rice, coordinating with European allies, called on
the United Nations Thursday to confront Iran's 'defiance' and demand that
Tehran halt its nuclear program. [AP] |
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Europeans will lose opportunities
they currently have in dealing with Iran and Tehran would block snap inspections
of its nuclear facilities, state-run television reported.
"In case Iran is referred to the U.N. Security Council ..., the government
will be obliged to end all of its voluntary cooperation," the television quoted
Mottaki as saying.
The statement reflected a law passed late last year that requires the
government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the U.N.
nuclear agency refers the Iranian program to the U.N. Security Council.
Iran has been voluntarily allowing the short-notice IAEA inspections since
2003.
The law also requires the Iranian government to resume all nuclear activities
that it had stopped voluntarily, foremost among them enriching uranium.
Foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and France said Thursday that nuclear
talks with Iran had reached a dead-end after more than two years of acrimonious
negotiations and the issue should be referred to the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also said a "strong message" had to
be sent to Tehran but said she was not ready to talk about what action should be
taken to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The calls to refer Iran to Security Council were made two days after Iran
removed some U.N. seals in the presence of inspectors from the International
Atomic Energy Agency from its main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz,
central Iran, and resumed research on nuclear fuel.
Iran said it was resuming "merely research" and that "production of nuclear
fuel" — which would involve enrichment — "remains suspended." But the IAEA said
Tehran also planned small-scale enrichment of uranium — a process that can
produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity or material for
nuclear weapons.
"I recommend to European countries that they should separate the issue of
research from production of nuclear fuel and not make propaganda over research
which is natural and normal but had unjustly been subject to suspension in the
past," Mottaki was quoted as saying.
Mottaki said Iran was prepared for talks with Europeans over uranium
enrichment.
"If they have any discussion in the stage of nuclear fuel production, we are
prepared to continue our talks with the three European countries," he said.
Mottaki, however, insisted that Iran won't give up its right under the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to possess the whole nuclear fuel cycle — from
extracting uranium ore to enriching it.
"No one can take this right from the Iranian nation. Regaining this right
doesn't require permission from any country," the television quoted him as
saying.
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