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Iran not afraid of UN sanctions
Iran is not afraid of being referred to the UN Security Council over its suspect nuclear programme and could easily withstand economic sanctions, a top national security official said Monday. "The most America can do to get its way is to impose economic sanctions, but our experience of these over the past 25 years have proved that they are ineffective," said a top member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Sayed Hossein Mussavian. "Even if the case is taken to the UN Security Council, nothing more than that sanctions can happen. It will fail. It does not worry us," he was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last Thursday that it was "more and more likely" that Iran would be referred to the UN Security Council as a possible prelude to sanctions. The United States has accused Iran of wantonly flouting international calls to curb its nuclear activities, saying Tehran is engaged in a "direct challenge" to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The next IAEA meeting is in September. Iran, which insists it has fully cooperated with the IAEA, wants its dossier to be taken off the agenda of the UN nuclear watchdog. Mussavian also shrugged off speculation that Israel may try to launch military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. "These threats are baseless, just part of a psychological war. I don't think the Americans and the Israelis would dare to attack Iran's nuclear facilities," he said. "The Europeans are opposed to that, and America's position in the region would stop them from taking such a risk," he added. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-08-02 |
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