Iran 'on verge' of nuke bomb

2005-09-22 14:40

Brussels - An Iranian opposition group on Thursday called for Iran to be referred to the United Nations security council without delay over its nuclear programme, claiming Tehran was "on the verge" of building an atomic bomb.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, presenting a report on Iran's nuclear programme in Brussels, criticised the European Union's policy of engaging Iran, which was under the spotlight at the UN atomic agency in Vienna.

Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the opposition group's foreign affairs committee, said: "Any procrastination in referring the mullahs' nuclear file to the UN security council would lead to disaster."

Suspension of talks

The International Atomic Energy Agency was meeting to decide how to proceed with Iran, after Tehran resumed sensitive nuclear activities in breach of an accord with the EU, sparking the suspension of talks with the bloc.

Earlier this week, the EU had been calling for Iran to be immediately referred to the UN security council, but on Thursday new draft documents indicated it was backing off from that stance.

The Iranian opposition activists said the EU "should abandon the policy of "engagement" with the Iranian regime.

In a 37-page report on Iran's nuclear programme, the opposition group claimed that there were talks in the 1980s between Iran and a key Pakistani nuclear expert who ran a proliferation ring.

Iran 'to rebuild nuke bomb'

The report, which the group said was based on a large network of sources in Iran, claimed that Abdul Qadeer Khan met Mohammad Eslami, now a key official in the defence ministry in Tehran, in 1986 and 1987. The claim could not be verified.

The group also claimed that Tehran was actively pursuing efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

The report said: "The regime is on the verge of producing a nuclear bomb."

Mohaddessin added: "The regime needs no more than two or three years to acquire the first bomb."

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, the so-called EU-3 which had led negotiations with Tehran, said on Thursday that the risks of proliferation were "too high" if Iran persisted in its nuclear policy.

The ministers wrote: "There are serious reasons to suppose that Iran's nuclear ambitions are not exclusively peaceful."

- AFP