IRAN: IRAN WARNS WEST IT WOULD START URANIUM PROCESSES AND REVIEW NON PROLIFERATION TREATY IF REFERRED TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL OVER NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Record ID: 208470

  • Title: IRAN: IRAN WARNS WEST IT WOULD START URANIUM PROCESSES AND REVIEW NON PROLIFERATION TREATY IF REFERRED TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL OVER NUCLEAR WEAPONS
  • Date: 20th September 2005
  • Summary: (BN12) TEHRAN, IRAN (SEPTEMBER 20, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. ALI LARIJANI, TEHRAN'S TOP NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR ARRIVING AND SITTING DOWN AT NEWS CONFERENCE 2. NEWS CONFERENCE 3. JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Farsi) ALI LARIJANI, SECRETARY OF IRAN'S SUPREME NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL AND TEHRAN'S TOP NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR SAYING (APPROX TRANSLATION): "If they want to threaten us or if they want to send Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council we will resume uranium enrichment at the Natanz nuclear plant. If you use the language of force Iran will have no choice but to... leave the framework of the NPT(Non-Proliferation Treaty).... and to resume enrichment. However, if language of reason is used then we are prepared to continue having a dialogue. We are not in a position to give up our national position and the right of the Iranian people to possess nuclear know-how." 5. JOURNALISTS TAKING NOTES 6. ALI LARIJANI LEAVING THE NEWS CONFERENCE 7. ALI LARIJANI TALKING TO JOURNALISTS AT END OF NEWS CONFERENCE (BN09) NATANZ, BETWEEN ISFAHAN AND KASHAN, IRAN (FILE - MARCH 30, 2005) (REUTERS) 8. AERIAL OF NATANZ NUCLEAR SITE AND BUILDINGS (5 SECONDS) 9. VARIOUS OF PUMPS INSIDE PLANT (16 SECONDS) 10. SIGN READING "DANGER. POISONOUS MATERIALS" INSIDE PLANT 11. ANOTHER SAFETY SIGN REQUIRING PEOPLE TO WEAR SAFETY MASKS IN AREA 12. MORE OF EQUIPMENT INSIDE THE NUCLEAR SITE (11 SECONDS) 2.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEHRAN, IRAN
  • Country: Iran
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PTOICT8CNXNT8YLZZ958TOHJ
  • Story Text: Iran warns West over Security Council referral.


    Iran warned the West on Tuesday (September 20) it would start
    uranium enrichment -- which can be used to make atomic bombs -- and review its membership of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if sent to the U.N. Security Council.

    The comments by Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani are likely to heighten tensions at this week's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna where Iran's nuclear programme is being discussed.

    The European Union and Washington are seeking support on the IAEA's
    35-nation governing board to report Iran to the Security Council for violating international atomic obligations.

    "If you use the language of force Iran will have no choice but to
    ... leave the framework of the NPT ... and to resume enrichment,"
    Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told a news conference.

    Larijani later toned down his remarks, saying Iran would stop
    implementing the NPT's Additional Protocol on snap inspections of nuclear sites but would not necessarily pull out of the NPT itself if referred.

    Larijani also said the world's fourth biggest oil producer would link its stance on foreign countries' access to its energy resources to whether they stood with Iran on its nuclear plans.

    He said some countries have extensive economic relations with Iran,
    especially in the oil sector but feel no responsibility to defend the rights of an oppressed nation and that the Supreme National Security Council was determined to balance these two issues.

    Supreme National Security Council spokesman Ali Aghamohammadi said
    Larijani's comments were intended as a warning to those drafting a resolution against Iran at the IAEA board meeting.

    Iran has resumed parts of its nuclear fuel cycle, suspected by
    Washington of being part of a bomb programme, but has stopped short of
    actually enriching uranium.

    Tehran argues it has every right to enrich the uranium it mines in its central deserts for use in electricity-generating power stations.

    Larijani said Iran had told the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France at a U.N. meeting in New York that it was ready to resume its two-year-old negotiations with the EU trio over its nuclear programme.

    He also reiterated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposal that other countries participate in its atomic programme to ensure that it remains peaceful.

    He said the international community should learn from the lessons of NPT-quitter North Korea against which he said pressure had proved useless.


    Responding to Iran's repeated suggestion that a Security Council report was a prelude to military action, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that was nonsense.

    He told reporters in New York that argument that says if you take
    something to the Security Council it then leads to war, was for the birds.

    Larijani warned countries with close economic ties with Iran that it would note any failure to support it.


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