TEHRAN, May 7: The Iranian parliament threatened in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday to force the government to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the United States and its allies continued pressuring Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

The letter, read on state radio, said Mr Annan and the Security Council must resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme “peacefully, (or) there will be no option for the parliament but to ask the government to withdraw its signature” from an addendum to the treaty that calls for signers to allow intrusive, snap inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency — the treaty monitoring body.

While the Iranians used the word “peacefully,” they were widely seen as referring to a diplomatic solution, short of a Security Council vote and possible sanctions.

The United States is backing attempts by Britain and France to draw up a UN resolution that would declare Iran in violation of international law if it does not suspend uranium enrichment — a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity or, if sufficiently processed, the materials for atomic weapons.

US and its Western allies want to invoke Chapter 7 of the UN charter that would lead to economic sanctions or — perhaps _ military action. Russia and China, the other two Security Council members — all of whom can veto any action by the organization as a whole — oppose such action.

Iran already had stopped snap IAEA inspections, saying its 2003 agreement was being implemented voluntarily and had not been ratified by parliament and the Guardian Council, a powerful oversight body dominated by Islamic conservatives. The protocol allows unfettered and unannounced IAEA inspections to ensure overall compliance with the NPT.

Furthermore, the letter said, the lawmakers would order a “review (of) Article 10 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the section of the agreement that outlines procedures for withdrawal.

Article 10 allows signatories to pull out of the treaty if they decide that extraordinary events have jeopardized their own supreme interests. A nation wanting to withdraw must give fellow treaty signers and the UN three months notice and detail events leading up to the decision.

North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 on that basis.

The US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, dismissed the Iranian parliament’s threat and said it would not deter Western nations trying to push through a new UN resolution demanding Tehran stop uranium enrichment.

“This is a typical Iranian threat. It shows they remain desperate to conceal that their nuclear programme is in fact a weapons programme,” he said. “I’m confident that these statements from Iran will not deter the sponsors of the draft resolution from proceeding in the Security Council.”

Bolton said he believed the resolution would move to a vote next week — with or without support from Moscow and Beijing.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the official Islamic Republic News Agency the US and its allies “don’t give us anything and yet they want to impose sanctions on us.” He called threats of sanctions “meaningless” and vowed to “smash their illegitimate resolutions against a wall.”

Mr Ahmadinejad also said he would not hesitate to reconsider NPT membership.

“If a signature on an international treaty causes the rights of a nation to be violated, that nation will reconsider its decision and that treaty will be invalid,” he told IRNA.

Also on Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said again that there was nothing the international community could do to force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, declaring that “intervention by the Security Council in this issue is completely illegal.”

Briefing reporters, Mr Asefi also said Iran’s opponents were driven by “political motivations.”

“Countries sponsoring the draft resolution (Britain, France and the United States) have political motivations,” Mr Asefi said. “It’s clear that any action by the UN Security Council will leave a negative impact on our cooperation with the IAEA.”

“Intervention by the UN Security Council would change the path of cooperation to confrontation. We recommend they do not do this,” he said.

Iran says its nuclear programme is designed only to make fuel for reactors to generate electricity, and the IAEA says there is no evidence Iran has a nuclear weapons programme.

“The UN Security Council should not take any action that it cannot later undo. We won’t give up our rights and the issue of suspension (of enrichment) is not on our agenda,” Mr Asefi said at his weekly briefing.—AP