Iran 'not worried' about UN

2006-01-22 14:42

Tehran - Iran on Sunday denounced a forthcoming emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog as "political" but said it was "not worried" about the crisis over its disputed atomic drive ending up at the Security Council.

"We are not worried by the Security Council, but it is the wrong method," foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

"An emergency meeting of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is not necessary. It is a political act," he added.

Iran faces the threat of being referred to the UN Security Council for resuming sensitive nuclear fuel research work that Western powers and Israel fear would give the clerical regime the know-how to build a bomb.

Tehran insists such work is legal given it has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has branded atomic weapons "un-Islamic" -- but a lengthy IAEA probe has yet to confirm the claimed civilian nature of the programme and has uncovered suspect activities.

Britain, France and Germany have called an urgent meeting of UN watchdog's 35-nation board for February 2. The meeting is widely expected to result in Iran being referred to the UN Security Council.

"It is clear in advance that the result of a meeting that takes place under the pressure of certain countries will be political," Asefi said, complaining that "we have asked the Europeans to resume negotiations but, lacking any logic, they have not."

A week ago Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed his country would not back down over its nuclear programme, even if ordered to do so by the UN Security Council.

And on Wednesday the country's top national security official, Ali Larijani, told the BBC that Iran has "not closed the path to compromise" - but said that did not include returning to a freeze of sensitive enrichment research.

- SAPA