Iran issues nuclear enrichment threat

Iran will immediately retaliate if referred to the UN Security Council next week by forging ahead with developing a full-scale uranium enrichment programme, Tehran’s senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said today.

The comments by Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh reflected Iran’s defiance in the face of growing international pressure on the Islamic Republic to renounce plans for enrichment, a way of making nuclear weapons, in exchange for avoiding Security Council action.