India studying implications of UNSC sanctions on Iran

New Delhi, Dec 24 (UNI) India today said it was ''studying'' the implications of the UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Iran and asserted that all possible efforts should be made to address the issue through peaceful dialogue and negotiations.

A statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should play a central role in resolving the outstanding issues.

Maintaining that Iran had the right to pursue its nuclear programme for peaceful civilian use, the statement said Tehran had undertaken certain obligations that its nuclear programme was exclusively for peaceful purposes.

''We have noted the passage of the UN Security Council Resolution and are studying its implications.

We continue to feel that all possible efforts should be made to address the Iranian nuclear issue by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation and that the IAEA should play a central role in resolving outstanding issues,'' External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.

The UNSC yesterday unanimously decided to impose sanctions against Iran in response to its uranium-enrichment activities, which Tehran says are for peaceful purposes but which other countries contend are driven by military ambitions.

The issue threatens to snowball as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while rejecting the sanctions, said today that world powers would soon regret imposing them (sanctions.) '' ''This resolution will not harm Iran and those who backed it will soon regret their superficial act... Iranians are neither worried nor uncomfortable with the resolution ... we will celebrate our atomic achievements in February,'' the Iranian President said, according to reports from Tehran.

Terming the U N sanctions resolution as ''a piece of torn paper,'' he asserted it would not scare the Iranians into stopping nuclear work.

The adoption of the sanctions resolution came after successive reports by the IAEA indicating its inability to certify that Iran's motives were entirely peaceful.

Iran's nuclear programme has been a matter of international concern ever since the discovery in 2003 that it had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Security Council decided that Iran must suspend the ''proliferation sensitive nuclear activities,'' including all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, and work on all heavy water-related projects. Both these steps are to be verified by the IAEA.

The Council banned trade with Iran of all items, materials, equipment, goods and tech enrichment-related, reprocessing or heavy water-related activities, or to the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.

States are also required to prevent the provision to Iran of any technical assistance or training, financial assistance, investment, brokering or other services, and the transfer of financial resources or services, related to the supply, sale, transfer, manufacture or use of the prohibited items, materials, equipment, goods and technology.

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