TEHRAN, 14 January 2006 — Iran threatened yesterday to block snap UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if it is taken to the UN Security Council, but the United States said the West would not be deflected from that course.
“I’m not going to prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do,” President George W. Bush told a news conference in Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “But I recognize that it’s logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council.”
Iran raised the stakes in its dispute with the West this week by removing UN seals on equipment that purifies uranium, which can be used for power, or if highly enriched, in bombs. The United States and the European Union’s three biggest powers said talks with Iran on the issue were at a dead end. Tehran denies accusations it is seeking nuclear weapons and says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said bringing Iran before the Security Council, as threatened by the United States and European powers on Thursday, would have “consequences” for the West and Tehran would have to “end all of its voluntary measures” in response.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to end snap checks and resume uranium enrichment if taken to the council.
Iran’s cooperation with snap UN inspections is voluntary, but halting them would reduce its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog to the legal minimum.
Iran’s new representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, said Tehran remained “fully committed” to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its statutory obligations to the IAEA.
Bush noted that the United States and other nations had “made it abundantly clear” to Tehran that developing nuclear capabilities or weapons was not acceptable.
“And the reason it’s unacceptable is because Iran armed with a nuclear weapon represents a grave threat to the security of the world,” he said, noting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had only recently declared the destruction of Israel was an important part of his agenda.
The EU3 — Britain, Germany and France — said Iran had consistently breached its commitments and failed to show the world its nuclear activities were peaceful.
