Iran may cut more IAEA ties if sanctions worsen

Vienna, June 14: Iran warned 50day it may reconsider basic cooperation with United Nations nuclear inspectors if it was hit with harsher UN sanctions over its expanding atomic programme.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Tehran had mastered the means to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel and world powers must accept that fact instead of trying to stop the work through sanctions.

Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran, in keeping with parliamentary legislation mandating such moves, had already stopped what he called voluntary measures of cooperation with the IAEA in response to sanctions imposed since last year.

''After each (UN Security Council) resolution, each action, there is a reaction, a prompt reaction from Iran,'' he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.

''But options are limited... We (remain) fully committed to our (basic) Safeguard Agreement with IAEA, but this has to be duly considered (again) with (respect to) those who are looking for confrontation,'' he said, referring to Western powers.

Iran says it aims to refine uranium only to the low level required for civilian energy, not the high level suitable for bombs.

But Tehran's past concealment of activity from inspectors and stonewalling of IAEA inquiries have stoked suspicions.

Instead of halting enrichment, as the UN Security Council has demanded, Iran has rapidly expanded its programme, prompting EU powers to warn yesterday it faced stiffer sanctions in addition to the two rounds the Security Council has imposed.

In early 2006 Iran stopped allowing inspectors to make short-notice visits to sites not declared to be part of the nuclear programme.

This April, Iran stopped providing advance design information on planned nuclear sites, including a heavy-water reactor.

Soltanieh said IAEA inspectors had documented significant Iranian strides towards creating a nuclear energy industry and said this showed it was irreversible.

The IAEA says Iran continues to provide regular inspector access to its declared uranium-processing and enrichment installations in Isfahan and Natanz as required by its Safeguards Agreement with the Vienna-based agency.

Diplomats have said Iran has been delaying some inspections at the underground Natanz enrichment complex. But IAEA officials say inspectors have enough presence to verify Iran is not diverting nuclear materials into illicit bombmaking.

Reuters

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