VIENNA, March 8: Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it could inflict “harm and pain” to match whatever punishment Washington persuaded the UN Security Council to dole out for Tehran’s refusal to halt atomic research.
“So if the United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll,” Tehran national security official Javad Vaeedi said.
Security Council diplomats said it would probably start debating Iran next week and US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said it would be Monday or Tuesday.
The council’s first move is likely to be urging Tehran to halt nuclear fuel work and cooperate with UN inspectors, without setting a deadline or threatening action.
Iran, the world’s No 4 oil provider, also said it would review its oil export policy should the council tackle its case, which EU powers said was now inevitable as Tehran had flouted demands to prove it was not secretly seeking atom bombs.
“The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain but it is also susceptible to harm and pain,” Vaeedi said.
Asked about Iran’s warning, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in New Orleans: “Provocative statements and actions only further isolate Iran from the rest of the world.”
Tehran and the United States, arch-foes since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, clashed at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board called to consider an IAEA report that says Iran is accelerating nuclear research.
The report by IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei, to be sent to the Security Council later in the day, will form part of the basis for any UN action. The UN agency’s board decided a month ago to send Iran’s nuclear dossier to the council, as long as it deferred any measures until after ElBaradei’s report.
In testimony to the US Congress, Burns said Iran “directly threatens vital American interests”. He said “we plan a concerted approach (in the council) ... that gradually escalates pressure on Iran”.
But Washington’s top EU allies, Germany, France and Britain, were more cautious. “This is not the end of diplomaccy,” the “EU3” told the Vienna-based IAEA board.
US ambassador Gregory Schulte said “the time has now come for the council to act” as Iran had defied a Feb 4 IAEA resolution to cease trying to master technology to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or, potentially, bombs.
“(Iran) has so far chose a course of flagrant threats and phony negotiations. They hoped this would keep the international community divided and their nuclear ambitions unchecked,” he told reporters outside the closed board session.
“Instead the course they have chosen has left them increasingly isolated and increasingly at risk of meaningful consequences (in the Security Council),” he added.—Reuters
