Iran Rejects Atomic Suspension, Sees `Hidden Agenda'
By Jonathan Tirone and Andrea Dudikova
June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Iran isn't willing to suspend its nuclear program, calling itself a "master'' of enrichment technology and accusing some UN atomic agency members of having a hidden agenda to widen inspections in the Islamic Republic.
"Iran is the master of enrichment technology,'' said Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltanieh, at a news conference in Vienna today. "The suspension, which had no legal or technical ground, now has lost its political merit. There is no way that suspension could be justified.''
The IAEA's 35-member board, which enforces the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, met to discuss Iran's atomic work this week in Vienna. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told the UN Security Council on May 23 that the Islamic Republic continued enriching uranium, contravening UN demands to stop. The Security Council is gearing up for a new round of even tighter sanctions against Iran, Group of Eight leaders said June 8 in Germany.
Members of the IAEA's board had a "hidden agenda'' in sending the Islamic Republic's nuclear dossier to the Security Council in April 2006, Soltanieh said. The agency punished Iran because it wanted more intrusive inspections to be legally binding in all member states, he said.
"Clearly, Ambassador Soltanieh is spinning faster than any centrifuge,'' U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte told Associated Press Television News. Schulte acknowledged that Iran had taken significant steps toward mastering uranium enrichment. He said the country hasn't mastered the process.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Iran Rejects Atomic Suspension, Sees `Hidden Agenda'
Thursday, June 14, 2007
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