Iran condemns nuclear watchdog agency resolution
Iran-UN, Politics, 8/12/2005

A team from the United Nations agency entrusted with curbing the spread of nuclear weapons is set to go to Iran today to discuss outstanding issues dealing with safeguards, contamination and the extent of the country's uranium enrichment program.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei announced the move following yesterday's adoption by the IAEA Board of Governors of a resolution calling on Iran to reverse its decision to resume activities at its Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan.

The IAEA said yesterday the organization "Urges Iran to re-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities including the production of feed material, including through tests or production at the Uranium Conversion Facility, on the same voluntary, non-legally binding basis as requested in previous Board resolutions, and to permit the Director General to re-instate the seals that have been removed at that facility."

Meantime, Tehran's Friday prayers substitute leader Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani today dismissed the Thursday resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors on Iran's peaceful nuclear program as "very tyrannical," IRNA reported.

Rafsanjani told multitudes of worshipers, "One should not take yesterday's event easily."
He said that's a "highly important" event and will put us and the region possibly under new conditions, opening a new chapter in our revolution.

He criticized certain Board members for turning back to Iran and stopping support for Tehran.
"It's highly surprising and amazing some countries initially supported us and even superficially delayed the meeting for two days but then through agreement adopted what the three European states and the US wanted and nobody opposed."

Rafsanjani said he would later elaborate on the reasons and the causes the resolution was adopted at the IAEA Board meeting. He said the same center, which explicitly says all countries have the right to benefit from the peaceful advantages of the latest and profit-making nuclear technology, has adopted such a "tyrannical" decision against Iran.

He went on to say, "We are now in the preliminary stage of enriching a substance which exists in our country to use the product for energy generation, medical, agricultural and other scientific purposes."

He said Tehran has accepted all the safeguards agreements and implemented them even before ratification of the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at Majlis.
The Expediency Council Chairman said Iran has excessively been humble and cooperative in the field and even suspended its activities for the sake of winning others' confidence

Rafsanjani said, "We could hardly think a global center will before eyes of the world adopt through a consensus a resolution which would mandate Iran to suspend all its activities and return to the past."

He said there are certain people saying Iran should not at all have nuclear technology and there are certain others who keep Iran waiting and order it to suspend the activities as a confidence- building gesture.

"The big powers are falsely thinking that through such a tyrannical move Iran will go backward and certain groups such as Israel also issue military threats against us," said Rafsanjani.

Meantime, Iran's Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei said in this western provincial capital Thursday evening that referring to the UN Security Council of Iran's nuclear case would make Europe the "big loser." Addressing a local ceremony, Rezaei said that threats of those countries which are opposed to Tehran's nuclear program were "ineffective," as Tehran had acceptable cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog regarding its nuclear activities.

The IAEA resolution which calls Iran to stop its activity on a "voluntary, non-legally binding basis," since Iran's actions are fully within the legal rights of the country under the rules of the organization calls into question the logic and competency of such decisions. The IAEA can be seen as an organization that is greatly influenced by political pressures as was repeatedly demonstrated by its incompetency to stand up to US and British claims against Iraq, when the organization clearly could not find evidence of any banned Iraqi nuclear activities, yet, the organization always hedged its statements in not being able to ascertain its results 100%, a matter which is impossible to do under most circumstance, as it repeated in yesterday's statement what it had previously done with Iraq that "the Agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."

With the apparent politicization of the function of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is not clear if Iran is considering ending its membership in the organization.

Previous Stories:
  Iran rejects EU proposed resolution to IAEA Board of Governors   (8/11/2005)
  Iran terms Europe's behavior on Uranium enrichment 'illogical, selfish'   (8/10/2005)
  Iran restarts uranium processing before UN completes surveillance tests   (8/9/2005)

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