Iran denounces UN nuclear freeze demand

IRAN yesterday denounced as “illegal” demands from the UN atomic watchdog agency that it freeze all work on uranium enrichment - technology that can be used for nuclear weapons.

Hasan Rowhani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, also said his country would limit its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the watchdog refers Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Mr Rowhani spoke a day after the agency’s governing board demanded Iran freeze all work on uranium enrichment and said it would judge Tehran’s compliance in two months.

“This demand is not legal and does not put any obligation on Iran. The IAEA board of governors has no right to make such a suspension obligatory for any country,” he said at a news conference.

The Iranian official said his country would continue with its voluntary suspension of what he described as “actual enrichment”; the injection of uranium gas into centrifuges.

But he indicated that related activities, such as production, assembly and testing of centrifuges, were likely to continue.

“We are committed to the suspension of actual enrichment but we have no decision to expand the suspension,” he said.

Iran is not prohibited from enrichment under its obligations to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But it has for months faced international pressure to suspend such activities as a good-faith gesture.

The United States insists the 35-member board must refer Iran to the Security Council when it meets again on November 25 if Tehran doesn’t comply.

However, Iran rejects this, saying it is only in pursuit of energy.

“There is no justification to refer Iran’s nuclear dossier to the Security Council,” Mr Rowhani said. “If one day they refer Iran’s nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council, that day ... Iran will stop implementing the additional protocol and will limit its cooperation with the IAEA.”

Iran has agreed to unfettered inspections of its nuclear facilities under an addition to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The IAEA board unanimously approved a toughly worded resolution on Saturday saying it “considers it necessary” that Iran suspend all uranium enrichment and related programs.

Approval of the resolution followed days of backdoor negotiations and resistance by nonaligned countries who saw their own right to enrichment threatened.