Iran 'won't stop enrichment'
2006-03-30 14:53
Vienna - Iran refuses to halt uranium enrichment, Iranian ambassador Aliasghar Soltanieh told AFP on Thursday, the day after the United Nations Security Council called for the programme to be suspended.
"Iran's decision on enrichment, particularly research and development is irreversible," said Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador in Vienna to the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Security Council had Wednesday in New York adopted a non-binding presidential statement which called on Iran to honour IAEA calls for it to re-establish "full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development."
It was the first Council action since the IAEA reported Iran to the Council on February 4, which unlike the atomic agency has enforcement powers.
Iran resumed in February uranium enrichment activities, after suspending the strategic work that makes what can be nuclear fuel but also atom bomb material in October 2003 in a gesture of confidence-building in talks with the European Union.
He said the IAEA had made a "historical mistake" in sending, in February, the Iranian dossier to the Security Council.
Europe and the United States suspect Iran is secretly trying to develop a nuclear weapon, but Iran insists its programme is dedicated solely to producing energy.
Soltanieh stressed that the IAEA has not found Iran guilty of diverting nuclear material for military purposes or of trying to make atomic weapons.
The IAEA has also however stated that it is so far unable to conclude that Iran's programme is strictly peaceful, as Tehran claims.
- AFP