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| Javad Vaeidi(R2),
deputy secretary of Supreme National Security Council of Iran speaks at
the news conference after the meeting in Vienna
[Xinhua] | TEHRAN, Feb. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran
started on Saturday immediate retaliative moves against a UN nuclear watchdog's
decision to report the Islamic Republic's case to the UN Security Council,
announcing an end to snap inspections and dismissing a Russian compromise plan.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a mandate, which
was read on state television at evening, to chief of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organization Gholamreza Aghazadeh, ordering him to end the implementation of the
additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other
confidence-building measures as of Sunday.
"As of Sunday, the voluntary implementation of the
additional protocol and other cooperative measures beyond the NPT must be
suspended according to the law," Ahmadinejad said, setting no exact date for the
resumption of the highly sensitive uranium enrichment.
Ahmadinejad's order was delivered several hours after
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors in Vienna
adopted a resolution by 27 against three with five abstentions at an emergency
meeting to report Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.
The resolution touched off prompt hails of the United
States and the European Union (EU), and even Russia, a longtime supporter of
Tehran over its nuclear dispute, also highly evaluated it.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin
called upon Iran to "respond constructively to the calls by the IAEA board of
governors for full-scale cooperation in seeking solutions to the remaining
problems, including the resumption of a voluntary moratorium on uranium
enrichment research."
However, Ahmadinejad denounced the IAEA's adoption of
the resolution, saying the decision was made under the pressure of certain
countries and did not have any legal justification.
The hardline president also stressed that the
government would substantially press on with the research and development of
nuclear technology and get ready to use it for peaceful purposes within the
framework of the IAEA regulations, the NPT clauses and the Safeguard Agreement.
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| Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad surveys the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, February 1, 2006. (Xinhua/Reuters) | Shortly after the IAEA board's voting, Javad Vaeedi,
deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the state
television from Vienna, Austria via phone that Iran would rule out a Russian
proposal to transfer sensitive nuclear enrichment to the Russian soil designed
to defuse the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Iran had previously posed an equivocal stance on the
Russian proposal, which suggested that the two countries establish a joint
venture on the Russian soil to enrich uranium for Iran so as to secure Iran's
legitimate rights on peaceful nuclear energy under the guarantee that the
technology will not be used for military purposes.
"We have no adequate reason to seek the Russian
proposal," Vaeedi stressed.
Vaeedi also said that Iran would resume
industrial-scale uranium enrichment, also citing the law passed by the Iranian
Majlis (Parliament) in December 2005 which demands the government cease all
voluntary measures on the nuclear program if hauled to the United Nations.
The additional protocol of the NPT, which the Iranian
government signed in December 2003 under the persuasion of the European trio of
Britain, France and Germany but failed to be ratified by the Iranian Majlis,
requires its signatories to admit snap inspections of the IAEA on nuclear
facilities.
Iran defines the implementation of the addition
protocol and voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment work as voluntary and
temporary measures aimed to build confidence and immune from legal binding.
Tehran suspended all activities related to uranium
enrichment in November 2004 to pave the way to negotiations with the European
trio over the promised economic and technological incentives.
However, Iran resumed uranium conversion work, a
precursor to the enrichment, in August 2005, which has paralyzed the bilateral
talks since then.
In a stiff atmosphere of the negotiations with the
EU, the Islamic Republic further restarted nuclear research work, namely uranium
enrichment at a minim scale, regardless of warnings of the EU, a defiant move
prompting the EU's call of the IAEA emergency meeting.
Uranium enrichment is the key step for the
construction of nuclear fuel cycle, which Iran says is a legitimate right
enshrined by the NPT, but highly enriched uranium can be used as materials for
building atomic bombs.
Iran has said that it will not allow the legal right
of enrichment to be deprived even in the UN Security Council.
But, the EU holds that Iran's full mastery of nuclear
fuel cycle technology would possibly lead to military usage, based on the United
States' accusation that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
Iran says that its nuclear program is fully peaceful
and aimed at meeting rising domestic demand for electricity.
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