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Iran vows to ignore Security Council nuclear deadline
AFP
TEHRAN
Petroleumworld.com 04 24 06Iran vowed Monday it would ignore this week's UN Security Council deadline to freeze its sensitive uranium enrichment work, the centre of fears the Islamic republic could acquire atomic weapons.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki compared the war of nerves to Iran's struggle from the 1950s onwards to wrest its oil industry from British control, asserting that Iranians were once more standing "firm and united".
"Once again the Security Council is on the threshold of a big test," Mottaki said, just days away from the Friday deadline set by the Council for Iran to freeze uranium enrichment.
"The Iranian nation has collectively decided to seek its rights within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty," he added.
Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to make reactor fuel to generate electricity, as is authorised by the NPT. But Western powers want a suspension of the work -- which can be extended to make weapons -- while suspicions over Iran's nuclear programme remain.
"One of the members of the Security Council wants to test what was tested before," Mottaki said, referring to British attempts half a century ago to prevent Iran from nationalising its oil sector.
"It wants to stand against the firm will of the Iranian people. They say that they can have nuclear weapons, but we cannot even have (civilian) nuclear technology," Mottaki complained.
"This logic is condemned, and the Iranian nation, in order to prove this, will stand firm and united," said the foreign minister, who was speaking at a conference in Tehran on regional security.
Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also due to give a press conference Monday, widely expected to see him once again underline the regime's refusal to comply with the Security Council request.
On Sunday the foreign ministry said that Iran's enrichment programme was "irreversible".
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is to report on Iran's compliance in the coming days, and diplomats predict he will be less than complimentary about the Islamic regime.
Earlier this month Iran announced its scientists had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, triggering global alarm and heightening the pressure on the Islamic republic.
Ahmadinejad has also vowed that the next step will be working on highly efficient P2 centrifuges, which can enrich far more effectively than the P1 technology currently used.
The United States is pushing for moves that could lead to economic and other sanctions if Tehran fails to comply but key Iranian trading partners Russia and China are resisting such measures.
Washington will call for the IAEA to cut off technical assistance to Iran and to be given a mandate for tougher inspections if diplomatic efforts falter.
If Iran fails to meet the April 28 deadline, the United States wants the Security Council to adopt a "Chapter 7" resolution which would legally oblige Iran to meet the IAEA's calls.
The current Security Council demand came in the form of a Council statement, which is not legally-binding.
There has also been growing talk of a possible US military strike.
On Sunday, Israel's prime minister designate Ehud Olmert also told a weekly cabinet meeting that Iran's nuclear programme constitutes an "existential threat" for the Jewish state.
"The Iran issue is central and the top priority of the state of Israel," Olmert said in a statement from his office. "It's an existential threat to the state of Israel... and a potential threat to the whole of Western civilisation."
AFP 04 24 06 1110 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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