Iran might bar IAEA inspectors

2004-10-14 19:44

Moscow - A top official said here on Thursday that Iran would bar international nuclear inspections in its country if debate on its nuclear programme is taken up in the UN security council.

If the issue goes to the security council "there will be no place for any kind of inspections, no continuation of our openness" with IAEA inspectors, Aladdin Broujerdi, chair of the Iranian parliament's committee on national security and foreign affairs said. p>The US has pushed for examination of Iran's nuclear programme to be taken up in the security council, while Russia reiterated on Wednesday that it opposed such a move.

Broujerdi met with a host of top officials in Moscow ahead of a visit by Alexander Rumyantsev, head of Russia's atomic energy agency, to the Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran that Russia is building and that Iran wants to have online by next year.

Rumyantsev could sign an agreement on return to Russia of spent nuclear fuel from the plant during his visit, expected in November, "if commercial issues are resolved by that time", Iran's ambassador to Russia, Gholamreza Shafei, said.

The US has opposed the $800m plant project over concerns that spent fuel from the plant could be used by Iran to produce low-yield nuclear weapons.

Boujerdi said Iran's nuclear programme would focus on producing power for civilian use and would include medical and biological research.

"The American argument that we have oil and gas resources and therefore we don't need nuclear power sounds like a joke," Boujerdi said.

"One day the resources will run out and we are responsible to future generations of our people."

- AFP