Iran Says Unclear When Nuclear Checks to Resume
Sun Mar 14, 2004
Reuters
By Parinoosh Arami
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was not sure when it would allow U.N. atomic inspectors back into the country and said the decision to bar them reflected Tehran's anger at an "insulting" resolution on its nuclear activities.
"This was a response to the insulting tone of the resolution. We don't allow them to talk to us in such a way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference. "When and how a new date is set, I do not know."
U.S. officials condemned the inspections freeze and said it could be aimed at buying time to cover up undeclared nuclear activities. But International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he was confident Iran would reverse its decision to block IAEA inspectors from visiting the country.
It was not clear whether the dispute would push the European Union -- which has tried to encourage Iranian cooperation with the IAEA through careful negotiations -- closer to Washington's tougher stance on Tehran's nuclear program.
In the resolution, the IAEA board said it "deplores" Iran's omissions of key atomic technology from an October declaration, including undeclared research on advanced "P2" centrifuges that can make bomb-grade uranium.
It said the board of governors would decide in June how to respond to the omissions -- a clause that several diplomats said keeps the door open for a possible report to the U.N. Security Council and economic sanctions.
ANGER AND CONCERN
Iran's hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper on Sunday said despite Tehran's past efforts to show it has no nuclear arms ambitions it still faced "mounting pressure from Satanic powers."
"So there is no option but to opt out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and suspend all cooperation with the IAEA," it said.
But reformist newspapers expressed concern at the move to bar IAEA inspectors and reformist lawmaker Elaheh Kulai called for Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani to explain Iran's nuclear policy to the assembly.
"We have seen what happened in Iraq so one should not underestimate the international propaganda against Iran," she said in a parliament session on Sunday.
Iran feels the IAEA resolution adopted on Saturday focused too heavily on omissions and failures in Iran's communications with the IAEA and failed to highlight its signature of a protocol in December allowing snap inspections of nuclear facilities and its decision to temporarily suspend uranium enrichment.
"The reality should be reflected (in the resolution). If not, the manner of our cooperation may change. Stopping the inspectors from visiting Iran should be evaluated in that framework," Asefi said.
A senior U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the postponed inspections were supposed to take place at the Natanz enrichment site, which Iran had hid from the IAEA until an exile opposition group reported it in August 2002.
"The real issue here is are the Iranians serious about giving up nuclear weapons or are they playing games?" he said.
He added that there may even be undeclared sites inside the massive Natanz complex that the IAEA does not know about yet.
But Asefi insisted Iran was hiding nothing from inspectors and did not fear being referred to the U.N. Security Council.
"We're not worried that our case will be sent to the Security Council because, in the first place, we have had good and clear cooperation with the agency and, secondly, we have told them about everything and not hidden anything," he said.
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