TEHRAN, Sept 30: Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected as “unacceptable” a European Union warning over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.

The warning was “unacceptable” and “far removed from the principles of cooperation” between the EU and Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said, quoted by the student news agency ISNA.

EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday warned Iran of costly economic fallout if the Islamic republic fails to come clean on its nuclear programme.

A lucrative trade accord could be in danger if Iran fails to meet international concerns over nuclear non-proliferation, global terrorism, human rights and Tehran’s opposition to the Middle East peace process, they said.

“More intense economic relations can be achieved only if progress is reached in the four areas of concern,” the ministers said in a statement.

Assefi countered that the EU should “act in an independent manner, without account of the climate that has been artificially created”.—AFP