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Iran defiant as IAEA prepares to meet
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 08:39 Iran threatened Sunday to
embark on full-scale uranium enrichment if the UN nuclear watchdog presses for
action over its nuclear program, and the American ambassador to the United
Nations warned of the possibility of "painful consequences" for Iran.
Iran's top nuclear
negotiator, Ali Larijani answers a question from the media during a news
conference in Tehran, on Sunday March 5, 2006. Iran warned Sunday that it
will start large-scale uranium enrichment if it is referred to the UN
Security Council. [AP] |
The comments came as
the International Atomic Energy Agency's board prepared to meet Monday to
discuss referring Iran to the UN Security Council, but delegates said whatever
step the council might take would stop far short of sanctions.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday there was
an urgent need to confront Iran's "clear and unrelenting drive" for nuclear
weapons.
Iran "must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international
isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," Bolton told the
conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
But Iran's government cautioned that putting the issue before the Security
Council would hurt efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
"If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the UN Security Council,
(large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed," Iran's top negotiator, Ali
Larijani, told reporters in Tehran. "If they want to use force, we will pursue
our own path."
He said Iran had exhausted "all peaceful ways" and that if demands were made
contrary to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the nation "will resist."
Larijani said Iran will not abandon nuclear research, or back down from
pursuing an atomic program that Tehran insists has the sole purpose of
generating electricity with nuclear reactors.
IAEA delegates suggested the U.N. agency's board will not push for
confrontation with Iran and said any initial decisions by the Security Council
based on the outcome of the meeting will be mild.
They said the most likely action from the council would be a statement urging
Iran to resume its freeze on uranium enrichment 錕斤拷 an activity that can make both
reactor fuel and the core of nuclear warheads 錕斤拷 and to increase cooperation with
the IAEA's probe of the Iranian program.
Even such a mild step could be weeks down the road.
Still, it would formally begin council involvement with Iran's nuclear file,
starting a process that could escalate and culminate with political and economic
sanctions 錕斤拷 although such action for now is opposed by Russia and China, which
can veto Security Council actions.
Bolton said a failure by the Security Council to address Iran would "do
lasting damage to the credibility of the council."
"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses," Bolton said, "the
harder and more intractable it will become to solve."
Russia and China share the concerns of the United States, France and Britain
錕斤拷 the three other permanent council members with veto power 錕斤拷 that Iran could
misuse enrichment for an arms program.
But both have economic and strategic ties with Tehran. While they voted with
the majority of IAEA board members at a Feb. 4 meeting to alert the council to
suspicions about Iran's nuclear aims, they insisted the council do nothing until
after this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna.
Russia is unlikely to agree to strong action while it negotiates with Iran on
a plan that would move Tehran's enrichment program to Russian territory as a way
of increasing international monitoring and reducing the chances for misuse in
arms work.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due in Washington and New York this
week to discuss the status of those talks with Bush administration officials and
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Both Tehran and Moscow have said new talks are planned; diplomats in Vienna,
who demanded anonymity in return for discussing the situation, said no dates had
been set.
In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran could reach
an agreement with Russia or the European Union within hours, but did not
elaborate. Iran rejected an EU proposal last fall to end enrichment in return
for the West providing reactor fuel and economic aid.
Past IAEA board meetings have ended with resolutions taking Iran to task for
hindering investigations into a nuclear program that was kept secret for nearly
18 years and more recently urging it to reimpose a freeze on enrichment.
The Feb. 4 resolution asked IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report those
concerns and others to the Security Council and to formally hand over the
complete Iran file to the council. It also asked him to provide the council with
his latest report, drawn up for Monday's IAEA meeting.
That report, made available to The Associated Press last week, said Iran
appeared determined to expand uranium enrichment, planning to start setting up
thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges this year.
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