Iran rejects UN call for uranium enrichment freeze

Iran rejected a UN resolution yesterday calling on it to freeze uranium enrichment activities and threatened to stop snap checks of its atomic facilities if its case were sent to the UN Security Council.

It said that if the Security Council went as far as punishing Tehran with sanctions, Iran might follow North Korea and pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty altogether.

Washington says Iran plans to use enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear programme is dedicated solely to generating electricity.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday calling on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities.

"Iran will not accept any obligation regarding the suspension of uranium enrichment," chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told a news conference yesterday. "No international body can force Iran to do so."

His words chimed with the view of the Iranian parliament, which urged the government to ignore the resolution.

Although the IAEA board termed the suspension a "necessary" confidence-building measure, it observed that suspensions would be "voluntary decisions" by Iran and not obligations, enabling Tehran to tell Iranians it was not acting under UN pressure.

In an interview with CNN, IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei said he was not convinced Iran was an imminent threat, but he urged it to suspend enrichment-related activities until it had been proven its programme was for peaceful purposes.

"What I am asking Iran, is please build the confidence and please work with me to build the confidence through the agency and please allow us to verify all outstanding issues," he said.

"If we can do that then we can trigger a political dialogue which Iran has already started to do with the Europeans."