Related: Iran threatens to end diplomacy if referred to UNSC

Iran's top nuclear Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) gestures as he leaves the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, in Tehran, Iran January 31, 2006. (Photo: Xinhua)

     TEHRAN, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator AliLarijani reiterated Tuesday that Tehran would halt the cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog and suspend all confidence-building measures if its nuclear case was referred to the UN Security Council.

    "If the case was referred or reported to the Security Council, we will have to restart all voluntarily suspended work and stop the implementation of the additional protocol (of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)," Larijani told reporters.

    Iran's Majlis (Parliament) passed a law last November which requires the government to cease all voluntary confidence-building measures if the country's nuclear case were referred to the UN Security Council.

    Iran suspended all uranium enrichment related activities and allowed snap inspection of its nuclear sites under the NPT additional protocol to pave the way for the nuclear negotiation with the EU trio of Britain, France and Germany in late 2004. 

    Earlier Tuesday, Larijani was quoted by Iran's state television as saying that the referral or report of Iran's case to the UN would mean "an end to diplomacy".

    Larijani's comments came after foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany agreed in London overnight that Thursday's emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should report its decision on Iran to the Security Council.

    But the powers agreed in a compromise with Russia to put off UN action until at least March.

    The EU trio and the United States have been pushing for the IAEA to refer Iran's case to the Security Council after Iran resumed  nuclear fuel research on Jan. 10, escalating crisis overits disputed nuclear program. 

    Iran has denied seeking nuclear weapons, but insisted on its legal right to peaceful nuclear technology.  Enditem