Under Fire, Iran Threatens to Back away from Nuclear Commitments

17/06/2004| IslamWeb

Iran's president warned that Iran could back away from key commitments over its nuclear programme if the UN atomic energy watchdog adopted a harsh European-drafted resolution. Mohammad Khatami said Iran would feel no moral obligation to maintain a suspension of uranium enrichment nor allow tougher inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency if Iran were slapped with yet more criticism. At the Vienna headquarters of the IAEA, the US ambassador to the agency, Kenneth Brill, said these threats constituted intimidation and suggested that Iran had something to hide. Khatami did offer some reassurance by dismissing any immediate talk of quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the IAEA is charged with overseeing. "For the moment, we do not want to leave the NPT or stop applying the additional protocol," which gives inspectors more power, Khatami told reporters after a cabinet meeting. "But if the European resolution is adopted in its current form, that means the Europeans do not respect their obligations to us and we will not have any obligations to them," he said. The British-French-German draft under discussion in Vienna calls for the probe into Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme to be stepped up, and chastises the clerical regime for its failure to allay suspicions it is seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of generating atomic energy. Stopping nuclear fuel cycle work and allowing tougher inspections are two so-called "confidence-building" measures that go beyond the NPT, but are seen by the IAEA as essential to easing international concern over Iran's intentions while inspections are carried out. IAEA diplomats were meeting into the evening Wednesday to hammer out the resolution. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, answers a question from media during a news conference in Tehran after a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran on Wednesday June, 16, 2004. (AP)