Iran dismisses further sanctions as 'unjust and political' - Summary

Sat, 12 Dec 2009

Tehran - Iran said Saturday that any further United Nations sanctions over its controversial nuclear programs were "unjust and political," ISNA news agency reported. The European Union and the US announced on Friday that they were prepared to push for more UN sanctions against Iran should the Islamic Republic refuse to cooperate with foreign demands on its nuclear projects.

"The countries (planning the sanctions) know very well that their plan is totally unjust and political," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told ISNA.

"World public opinion should know that this plan is outside any internationally acknowledged legal framework and especially outside the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," the spokesman said.

The government said Iran has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear development, including uranium enrichment, as signatory of the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and member of the IAEA.

Tehran also rejects Western charges that it is working on a secret nuclear program to make an atomic bomb.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, currently in Bahrain at a security conference, criticized the world powers' plans of renewed sanction against Iran and said such measures would have the reverse effect.

"The use of force, threats and sanctions for confronting Iran's peaceful nuclear projects and making instrumental and political use of the IAEA would not only have reverse effects but also undermine the NPT," Mottaki was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.

The Iranian foreign minister called on the world powers "to stop discrimination", instead of focusing on Iran, but to also look at Israel.

The nuclear row has reached another deadlock after Iran admitted to the construction of a new enrichment site south of Tehran, and rejected a plan brokered by the IAEA for Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU) being exported to Russia and France for further enrichment and eventually fuel for the Tehran medical reactor.

"The deal is still on, just our proposal was the deal should be made inside Iran: bring the fuel and get the LEU instead," Mehmanparast said, reiterating that Iran needed guarantees that the deal would be correctly implemented.

"The deal can fully be under IAEA supervision and even the fuel can even be delivered inside Iran first to the IAEA (and then to us)," the spokesman added.

Both the IAEA and the world powers have so far rejected the Iranian proposal and gave Iran time until the end of the year to accept the initial IAEA plan or face renewed sanctions.

Following another IAEA resolution last month against the Islamic state, Iran warned it would reduce cooperation with the UN nuclear guardian to a minimum and would even increase the enrichment level of its uranium from around 5 per cent now to 20 per cent by itself.

Tehran however later revised its stance and, as repeated Saturday by Mottaki in Bahrain, vowed to continue cooperation.

Tehran also proclaimed that for covering its electricity needs, the country needed between 15 to 20 new uranium enrichment sites of which ten have already been ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be built.