Threat to restart enriching uranium: Iran slams IAEA, Europeans for bowing to US pressure
VIENNA, March 10: Iran criticized European states on Wednesday for bowing to US pressure to condemn Tehran's atomic programme before the UN nuclear watchdog and threatened to cut cooperation with the international agency.
Britain, France and Germany "have tried their best, but we expected more from our European colleagues," over a draft resolution that lists Iranian failures to report sensitive nuclear activities, Iranian ambassador Pirooz Hosseini told reporters at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors was on Wednesday still debating at its Vienna headquarters the resolution on Iran, with a vote expected later in the week.
Mr Hosseini said there was "too much pressure, unconstructive pressure, by the Americans" and accused them of "bullying." In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said the Islamic Republic could end cooperation with the IAEA unless it stopped being "influenced by the Americans".
He said that Iran intended to end its suspension of uranium enrichment once relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were "normalized". But US ambassador to the IAEA Kenneth Brill told reporters the nuclear watchdog had identified "significant concerns" about Iran's programme.
"We look forward to the agency getting complete cooperation from Iran so that it can truly get to the bottom of the Iranian nuclear programme," Brill said. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran should keep on cooperating.
"Iran has been in breach of its (nuclear non-proliferation) obligations for many years and we need to build confidence," Mr ElBaradei said. The IAEA has been verifying since February 2003 whether Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful, as Iran claims.
Mr ElBaradei urged Iran not to renew its uranium enrichment activities, as Kharazi threatened on Wednesday. Iran's resumption of enriching uranium would not be constructive, Mr Brill said.
He said the United States, which claims Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, understood that an agreement Britain, France and Germany worked out last year with Iran was on "how to suspend and to build on the suspension of enrichment and not how to end the suspension of enrichment activities."
The US, which wants to take Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, agreed on the compromise text on Tuesday with Britain, France and Germany, which have stressed the need to get Iran to cooperate with the international community over non-proliferation.
The text condemns Iran for failing to report such crucial technologies as advanced P-2 centrifuge designs for enriching uranium, possibly to weapons grade, despite having claimed to have fully disclosed its nuclear programme in a declaration to the IAEA last October.
But the draft resolution puts off any immediate reaction, such as declaring Iran to be in non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a move that would mean the issue being taken up by the UN Security Council and pave the way towards possible sanctions.
The 13 non-aligned states on the IAEA board said they would be proposing amendments to the text on Thursday. A NAM diplomat said they wanted to "soften the tone" to avoid condemning Iran.
US REACTION: Responding quickly to Iranian assertions, Kenneth Brill, US ambassador to the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, said Iran's decision to resume uranium enrichment, would not be constructive.
Mr Brill said the United States understood that an agreement Britain, France and Germany worked out last year with Iran was on "how to suspend and to build on the suspension of enrichment and not how to end the suspension of enrichment activities".
LIBYA: Meanwhile, Libya took a further step towards cooperation with the IAEA, by signing an additional protocol to the NPT which allows IAEA inspectors to carry out wider, unannounced inspections of its nuclear facilities.
This came after the IAEA board adopted a resolution to notify the UN Security Council that Tripoli had violated its nuclear non-proliferation commitments but had since cooperated in remedying this, so that sanctions would not be called for. -AFP
