Iran criticizes threat of UN action
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-27 10:37

Iran's vice president on Monday blasted the "absurdity" of moves toward referring his country to the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear activities but stopped short of announcing that Tehran had retaliated by resuming uranium conversion.

U.S. and British representatives at a 139-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency asserted that only Iran — and its disregard for international concerns about its nuclear program — was to blame for a weekend decision that clears the path for hauling Tehran before the Security Council as early as next month.

Iran's Vice President Reza Aghazadeh speaks on Monday, Sept. 26, 2005, during the 49th regular session of the International Atomic Energy Agency general conference in Vienna, Austria.[AP]

The resolution by the nuclear watchdog's board of directors setting up Tehran for referral "demonstrates how issues can reach the borders of absurdity, when politics overwhelm the work of the agency," Vice President Reza Aghazadeh told the meeting, insisting the Security Council motion had no legal base.

"Why ... such a forceful push to resort to the Security Council?" said Aghazadeh, who also is head of his country's nuclear program. "What magical means can the council offer for a settlement ... except to ... provoke an unwanted crisis?"

Iran insists its nuclear program is designed for generating electricity, but the United States and others accuse it of seeking to develop atomic weapons.

Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday called on its European negotiating partners to resume talks over its nuclear activity and reiterated its warning that it may reduce its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear agency if it is referred to the Security Council for sanctions.

"Iran is ready to accept constructive and effective proposals," according to a Foreign Ministry statement read on television.

Despite the rhetoric, however, Iran did not seem eager to deepen the crisis — for now.

Diplomats close to the IAEA told The Associated Press that as of Monday, Iran had not acted on a weekend threat to notify the agency of Tehran's intention to resume uranium conversion — which can generate nuclear fuel or the fissile core of warheads — and reduce agency access to its nuclear activities. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal IAEA issues.

The resolution adopted Saturday by the agency's 35-nation board of directors could lead to Iran's referral to the Security Council. While the 15-nation council could impose sanctions, that is unlikely because of opposition by veto-wielding members Russia and China. But the referral would still increase pressure on Tehran.

British delegate Robert Wright said the resolution reflected the fact that in the past two years, "Iran has failed to honor its commitments" to fully dispel suspicions its nuclear activities were a cover for a weapons program.

Gregory Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA, said Iran served as an example of the "pernicious and defiant misuse of nuclear technology" threatening to irreversibly damage nonproliferation efforts.

"The onus is on Iran to come into compliance with its international obligations" to dispel fears about its nuclear intentions, he said. "By virtue of its long history of deception and concealment, Iran is a special case that requires special measures to ensure ... that Iran will not subvert so-called 'peaceful use' for military ends."

The issue was not formally on the agenda of the IAEA's general conference but spilled over into Monday's opening session.

Among other key areas of concern, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei named North Korea's nuclear weapons threat and the existence of nuclear black market networks, which he said pose "an unprecedented array of challenges to the nonproliferation and arms control regime."

Earlier Monday, the conference approved the reappointment of ElBaradei for a third four-year term. The move, by acclamation, had been expected after Washington dropped its opposition and the IAEA's board agreed to the reappointment earlier this year.

Much of previous U.S. opposition to ElBaradei was because Washington viewed the Egyptian diplomat as being too soft on Iran for not declaring it in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. That stance has blocked a U.S. bid to haul Tehran before the U.N. Security Council for more than two years.

He also disputed U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein's former government in Iraq had an active atomic weapons program — a claim that remains unproven.

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