TEHRAN, Sept 4: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said on Sunday that Iran would not halt its nuclear drive despite fresh international criticism and threats of being referred to the UN Security Council.

Speaking to state television, Ali Larijani said mounting pressure on Iran to stop making nuclear fuel amounted to “bullying” and warned that taking the matter to the Security Council would be a “mistake”.

On Friday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed ElBaradei, issued a tough report that showed Iran failing to meet demands for cessation of all nuclear fuel activities.

The report also said Iran had failed to resolve, despite two and a half years of IAEA investigations, critical questions about work with both uranium and plutonium — the two raw materials for making atom bombs.

“If the IAEA was seeking to resolve Iran’s nuclear issue, it could have already done so by now,” Mr Larijani said.

“The important thing is that the nuclear issue is a national issue. They should not talk to Iranian people with bullying language. This great people will not change their goals because of such language,” he said.

Iran says its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity — something it insists it has a right to do as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.—AFP