Iran set to retaliate on nukes
2006-02-01 21:05
Tehran - Iran threatened on Wednesday to retaliate if it was hauled before the United Nations security council about its disputed nuclear programme, by kick-starting sensitive fuel-cycle work and blocking international inspections.
In a barrage of threats on the eve of a key meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog, firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also vowed Iran would "continue on the road to victory" and labelled United States President George W Bush a warmonger.
Ahead of the meeting, world powers, including Russia, agreed on a draft resolution asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the security council, which has the power to impose sanctions.
Iran's top national security official Ali Larijani told a news conference: "If Iran's case is referred or reported to the security council... Iran's co-operation will decrease.
"The government will be obliged to remove suspensions, which includes industrial-scale enrichment, and it will do so."
'Cameras will be taken down'
He said a massive enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran was "ready for operation".
"Inspections will be restricted. They will not have the right to go to military sites which we have allowed them to go to so far.
"Some of their cameras will be taken down," Larijani said of the now three-year-old IAEA investigation into Iran's nuclear activities.
Energy-rich Iran says it wants to enrich uranium only to make reactor fuel to generate electricity, but the process can be extended to make weapons-grade material.
Tehran prompted the latest crisis in the long-running stand-off with the West by resuming enrichment research on January 10.
Iran's warnings came as world powers, including Russia, agreed on a draft IAEA resolution to be considered by Vienna-based agency's 35-nation board on Thursday.
- AFP