TEHRAN, Jan 13: Iran on Friday threatened to end cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog over its nuclear programme if the issue is referred to the UN Security Council.

“If the dossier is sent to the Security Council, the European countries will lose the means which are currently at their disposal, because... the government will be obliged, in conformity with the law adopted by parliament, to end all its voluntary measures of cooperation,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency said.

Iran’s standoff with the international community has escalated after Tehran resumed sensitive nuclear work but possible sanctions have been ruled out at least for the moment.

Europe’s three major powers responded to Iran’s move to reactivate uranium enrichment research by asking for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while UN chief Kofi Annan said Iran was still keen on pursuing nuclear talks with European powers.

In December Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed off on legislation that could limit UN inspections at Iran’s nuclear sites if its case is taken to the Security Council.

The law obliges the government to “stop voluntary and non-legally binding measures and implement its scientific, research and executive programmes” if the Security Council gets involved.

Ahmadinejad has ordered Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency to be prepared to apply the law, the Fars news agency reported.

The law does not refer to specific forms of retaliation, but counter-measures could include refusing to adhere to the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives increased inspection powers to the IAEA.

The additional protocol was signed by the previous reformist government but was never ratified by MPs in the conservative-run parliament.

Compliance with the additional protocol is seen as being crucial to an IAEA probe into allegations that Iran is using an atomic energy drive as a cover for weapons development.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Tehran of a “deliberate escalation” of the dispute, and said it was in “dangerous defiance of the entire international community.”

Mottaki urged the Europeans to deal with Iran’s nuclear activities with “discretion, patience and a rational attitude”.

“We advise the Europeans to separate the question of research from producing the nuclear fuel and do not propagate around the nuclear research activities which had been unjustly suspended,” he said.

“If they want to discuss making nuclear fuel we are ready to follow up with the negotiations with the EU-3,” he said.

If the negotiations are broken off by the Europeans “Iran will only be in contact with the IAEA to maintain its legitimate and natural rights”.—AFP