No to expected new UN Council demands: Iran

United Nations, Apr 28: Iran will not comply with an expected UN Security Council resolution aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions because its programs posed no threat to international peace and security, Iran's UN ambassador said.

''If the Security Council decides to take decisions that are not within its competence, then Iran does not feel obliged to obey,'' Iran's UN Ambassador Javad Zarif told a dozen reporters yesterday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will submit a report on Friday expected to say Iran has refused to suspend uranium enrichment efforts, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear warheads but also generate electricity.

''What I expect is there will be a lot of pressure from the United States to impose another short-sighted decision on the Security Council'' Zarif said.

''I don't need a crystal ball to predict that,'' he said.

A nonbinding Security Council statement on March 29 told Iran to suspend uranium enrichment efforts the West suspects are part of a secret nuclear weapons program but Iran says are aimed at generating electricity.

US Ambassador John Bolton said the United States and its allies were preparing a resolution that would put the demands in the March statement into a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.

Chapter 7 makes council resolutions legally binding under international law. It allows for sanctions or even war, but a separate resolution is required to specify either step.

Should the new resolution be adopted, despite doubts from Russia and China, and Iran defies its demands, Western nations will try to move to punitive action, council diplomats said.

Washington blamed for war of words

But in the meantime the West will try to convince Russia and China that none of the resolutions would be a basis for military action, an option only voiced by the United States but none of its allies.

Zarif, a veteran foreign ministry official, said those familiar with the controversy knew Iran's programs were peaceful ''and therefore the proper context for the discussion of this issue and is within the IAEA,'' the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna.

''The Security Council will be simply eroding its authority by adopting any decision that does not fall within its competence,'' Zarif said..'' He noted the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty entitled Iran to have a peaceful nuclear program and said most people were aware Iran's program was ''not a threat'' or even ''a latent threat.'' He blamed the United States for stepping up a war of words that in turn elicited a response from his government.

''Should we simply raise our hands and say, 'We surrender.

Thank you very much for all the threats and we're absorbing the threats and thinking about it?','' Zarif said.

Political directors from Germany and the five UN Security Council permanent members with veto power -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- meet in Paris on May 2 on the Iran nuclear issue.

On May 9, foreign ministers from the six nations are expected to meet in New York on the sidelines of a meeting of the quartet of Middle East mediators.

Bolton and China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said governments were trying to arrange such a session.

The quartet includes the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Reuters

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