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Iran votes to 'revise' UN ties
27/12/2006 19:22 - (SA)
Tehran - Iran's parliament voted on Wednesday to urge the government to "revise" ties with the United Nations (UN) nuclear agency in a move seen as likely to reduce the country's co-operation with the international atomic authority.
"About 161 out of 203 present legislators voted in favour of the bill," parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said in a session broadcast live on state radio.
The bill said that the government was "obliged to accelerate the country's peaceful nuclear programme and revise in its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency based on national interests".
Bill won't bind government
The government supported the bill, with deputy foreign minister Hamid Reza Asefi urging legislators to support it.
"This is a very helpful proposal. I ask legislators to vote for it," said Asefi.
Speaker Haddad Adel said before the vote that the bill would not bind the government to a particular course of action.
"The bill gives a free hand to the government to decide on a range of reactions - from leaving the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to remaining in the International Atomic Energy Agency and negotiating. We trust the government," said Adel.
For the bill to become law, the guardian council, a constitutional watchdog controlled by hard-line clerics, must approve it.
- AP
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