January 16, 2006	Monday	Zilhaj 15, 1426

TEHRAN, Jan 15: Iran said on Sunday it was not scared of being hauled before the UN Security Council and vowed to go ahead with its nuclear programme regardless of mounting international pressure. European, American, Chinese and Russian officials are due to hold talks on the crisis in London on Monday, when they are expected to set a date for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors.

Both the EU and the United States are pushing for Iran to be referred to the Security Council over what they fear is a covert weapons drive, leaving Tehran exposed to the prospect of international sanctions.

But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran had not crossed any red line, saying it is entitled under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to use nuclear technology for peaceful purpose. Iran is a signatory to the NPT.

“There is no legal basis to send our case to the Security Council, but even if it goes there the Islamic republic is not scared. Our red line is to guarantee our interests,” Asefi told reporters.

“Negotiations are the only way to find an acceptable solution for all sides,” he said.

Iran this week resumed nuclear research — involving small scale enrichment to test centrifuges. It says this is separate from full-scale uranium enrichment, which remains frozen for the time being.

Enrichment can produce reactor fuel but can also be extended to make the core of an atomic weapon — but the West fears that if Iran is allowed to master the technology via this research work the country would gain the know-how to make a bomb.

Iran’s parliament speaker Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel repeated on Sunday that Iran would merely retaliate by limiting IAEA nuclear inspections — crucial to the world’s understanding of and control over Iran’s nuclear activities.

“Based on the law approved by the Majlis, if the nuclear case is referred to the UN Security Council Iran is obliged to halt all voluntary measures and cooperation with the agency and this includes the additional protocol,” he said.

On Saturday, a defiant Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed his country would not back down — even if ordered to do so by the UN Security Council.

“Even if the Security Council becomes involved, it will not help resolve the issue. We are not interested in going down this path, but if some people insist on depriving the Iranian people of their rights they should know that such a thing will not happen,” the hardliner told a news conference.

“Naturally, our nation will not accept anything imposed on it. It is our definitive right to have nuclear technology.”

And when asked if oil and gas-rich Iran could use its vast energy reserves as a tool in the dispute, Ahmadinejad replied his nation also has “leverage” of its own to defend its national interests. The Iranian president branded Western supporters of Israel as war criminals and vowed they would soon be tried in Palestinian courts.

“The ones who openly support the occupying regime of Qods (Israel) must know their names will be on the list of war criminals and in the near future will be put on trial in Palestinian courts,” the firebrand president.

“Why have you equipped the occupying regime of Qods with atomic weapons?” he said, responding to mounting Western pressure over his own country’s disputed nuclear programme.

“It is us who should inspect the arsenals of you and the Qods occupying regime and seal and destroy them,” he added, specifically responding to comments made on Friday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President George W. Bush.

“If the two of them (Merkel and Bush) are supporting the occupiers (Israelis) of Qods, they should explicitly admit it and this means that they are taking part in the crimes being committed there,” Ahmadinejad declared.

“If you allow a free referendum take place you will see what will happen — a map back to 70 years ago when there was no Israel,” he added, explaining his call last year for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.—AFP