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| Iran Starts Retaliative Moves Against UN Referral |
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a mandate, which was read on state television at evening, to chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Gholamreza Aghazadeh, ordering him to end the implementation of the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other confidence-building measures as of Sunday. "As of Sunday, the voluntary implementation of the additional protocol and other cooperative measures beyond the NPT must be suspended according to the law," Ahmadinejad said, setting no exact date for the resumption of the highly sensitive uranium enrichment. Ahmadinejad's order was delivered several hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors in Vienna adopted a resolution by 27 against three with five abstentions at an emergency meeting to report Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council. The resolution touched off prompt hails of the United States and the European Union (EU), and even Russia, a longtime supporter of Tehran over its nuclear dispute, also highly evaluated it. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin called upon Iran to "respond constructively to the calls by the IAEA board of governors for full-scale cooperation in seeking solutions to the remaining problems, including the resumption of a voluntary moratorium on uranium enrichment research." However, Ahmadinejad denounced the IAEA's adoption of the resolution, saying the decision was made under the pressure of certain countries and did not have any legal justification. The hardline president also stressed that the government would substantially press on with the research and development of nuclear technology and get ready to use it for peaceful purposes within the framework of the IAEA regulations, the NPT clauses and the Safeguard Agreement. Shortly after the IAEA board's voting, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the state television from Vienna, Austria via phone that Iran would rule out a Russian proposal to transfer sensitive nuclear enrichment to the Russian soil designed to defuse the Iranian nuclear crisis. Iran had previously posed an equivocal stance on the Russian proposal, which suggested that the two countries establish a joint venture on the Russian soil to enrich uranium for Iran so as to secure Iran's legitimate rights on peaceful nuclear energy under the guarantee that the technology will not be used for military purposes. "We have no adequate reason to seek the Russian proposal," Vaeedi stressed. Vaeedi also said that Iran would resume industrial-scale uranium enrichment, also citing the law passed by the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) in December 2005 which demands the government cease all voluntary measures on the nuclear program if hauled to the United Nations. The additional protocol of the NPT, which the Iranian government signed in December 2003 under the persuasion of the European trio of Britain, France and Germany but failed to be ratified by the Iranian Majlis, requires its signatories to admit snap inspections of the IAEA on nuclear facilities. Iran defines the implementation of the addition protocol and voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment work as voluntary and temporary measures aimed to build confidence and immune from legal binding. Tehran suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment in November 2004 to pave the way to negotiations with the European trio over the promised economic and technological incentives. However, Iran resumed uranium conversion work, a precursor to the enrichment, in August 2005, which has paralyzed the bilateral talks since then. In a stiff atmosphere of the negotiations with the EU, the Islamic Republic further restarted nuclear research work, namely uranium enrichment at a minim scale, regardless of warnings of the EU, a defiant move prompting the EU's call of the IAEA emergency meeting. Uranium enrichment is the key step for the construction of nuclear fuel cycle, which Iran says is a legitimate right enshrined by the NPT, but highly enriched uranium can be used as materials for building atomic bombs. Iran has said that it will not allow the legal right of enrichment to be deprived even in the UN Security Council. But, the EU holds that Iran's full mastery of nuclear fuel cycle technology would possibly lead to military usage, based on the United States' accusation that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran says that its nuclear program is fully peaceful and aimed at meeting rising domestic demand for electricity. (Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2006) |
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