Iran will drop nuclear pledges if attacked

Iran, a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would drop all its international nuclear pledges if its atomic facilities were attacked, the outgoing Defence Minister said yesterday.

His comments came a day after Iran resumed uranium conversion work, fanning Western fears it may be seeking atomic weapons and defying European Union warnings that Tehran could be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to peaceful electricity generation.

"The day our facilities are attacked, we will put aside all our nuclear commitments," Ali Shamkhani said.

He did not specify which commitments Iran would drop. Leading conservatives have called for Iran to follow North Korea's example and pull out of the NPT, a treaty aimed at halting the spread of nuclear arms.

Mr Shamkhani said he thought it was unlikely the United States would attack Iran's nuclear facilities, saying Washington must have learned its lesson from the bloody invasion of Iraq.

US officials have played down media speculation they may be planning military action against Iran.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, which also accuses Iran of developing atomic weapons, has said his country would prefer a diplomatic rather than military offensive against Iran at this stage.

"Whatever is destroyed... will be rebuilt elsewhere," Mr Shamkhani said. "Our nuclear capability cannot be destroyed by any bomb, because it lies in our universities."

The UN atomic watchdog confirmed on Monday that Iran had resumed nuclear fuel work mothballed under a deal with Britain, France and Germany. Iran also formally rejected a package of political and economic incentives offered by the three on behalf of the EU and aimed at persuading it to scrap nuclear fuel work for good.

Mr Shamkhani said Iran's Shahab-3 missiles "are now accurate to within one metre of their target".

Iran began upgrading the Shahab-3 in May. Tehran said last year it had begun mass production of the medium-range missiles, thought by military experts to have a range of 2,000 km - enough to reach Israel.

With speculation mounting about new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nominees for Cabinet, Mr Shamkhani asked for the defence candidate to be an insider.

Iranian media have named the chief of the joint staff of the hardline Revolutionary Guards Ali Akbar Ahmadian as a possible candidate. But Mr Shamkhani said Mr Ahmadinejad had also spoken to Hossein Alaee, head of Iran's Defence Aircraft Industries Organisation.