A DEFIANT Iran today ended snap UN checks of its nuclear sites and said it was resuming uranium enrichment, a day after being reported to the Security Council over suspicions it is building nuclear weapons.Diplomats warned the response could heighten the dispute over the nuclear ambitions of the world's fourth biggest oil exporter. Tehran insists it needs nuclear technology only to generate electricity. "Iran has stopped all voluntary measures that it undertook in the past two-and-a-half to three years," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. "We have no commitment to the Additional Protocol any more."
"We had two clear options. One was to decide to abandon our nuclear rights, the other to preserve our rights. We chose resistance," Mr Mottaki said.
Iran's main measure was the suspension of uranium enrichment. If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used in power stations. If enriched further to weapons-grade, it can be used in nuclear warheads. Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, thereby allowing short-notice inspections of its atomic sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency voted yesterday to report Iran to the Security Council but the top UN body will take no action until an IAEA report on Iran is delivered in March
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said today he doubted sanctions would have much effect. Russia is helping build Iran's only nuclear power station and Russia's LUKOIL is investing in an Iranian oilfield. Mr Ivanov said IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei wanted a reply to his questions before the agency's governing board meets again in early March.
European diplomats said the questions related to Iran's attempts to acquire technology that could be used either in a civilian nuclear energy program or to develop atomic weapons. "We do expect Iran to provide answers to these questions - every single one of them," Mr Ivanov told reporters at an annual security conference in Munich.
Mr Ahmadinejad said nothing could deflect Tehran's pursuit of atomic know-how. "Our enemies cannot do a damn thing. We do not need you at all. But you are in need of the Iranian nation," he told a crowd in Tehran earlier today.
"Content yourself with as many resolutions as you like, you cannot prevent the will of the Iranian people," he said.
Iran has warned that any sanctions against it would send oil prices beyond a level industrialised economies could bear. Abdolrahim Moussavi, head of Iran's joint chiefs of staff, warned that any military strike against Iran's atomic facilities would be useless. "We are not seeking a military confrontation, but if that happens we will give the enemy a lesson that will be remembered throughout history," he was quoted as saying by the ISNA students news agency.
| He may be right. The 1988 naval battle with the US has gone into the books as one of the key battles establishing US global naval dominance. No reason we can't beat that record this time around. |
| interesting part: |
| Puty playing games with us or wishful thinking in Teheran? maybe just a reasonable desire to avoid massive bloodshed of ordinary Iranians. I can get down with that .... |