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TEHRAN, Feb. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran announced on Sunday that it
hadended all voluntary cooperation with the International AtomicEnergy Agency
(IAEA), including snap checks of its nuclear sites.
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| Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
says at a news conference on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006 that the Islamic
Republic had ended all voluntary cooperative measures with the UN nuclear
watchdog including spot checks and suspension of sensitive nuclear
enrichment. | Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at a news conference that the Islamic Republic
had ended all voluntary cooperative measures with the UN nuclear watchdog
including spot checks and suspension of sensitive nuclear enrichment.
"Iran has ended all voluntary measures it has been undertaking
with the IAEA during the past two-and-a-half to three years," Mottaki said.
"We do not have any commitment to the Additional Protocol of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) any longer," he added.
The NPT additional protocol, which the Iranian government signed
in December 2003 under the persuasion of Europe but failed to be ratified by the
Iranian Majlis (parliament), requires its signatories to admit snap inspections
of the IAEA on nuclear facilities.
Mottaki made the announcement one day after Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued an order to end voluntary cooperative measures as of
Sunday in accordance with a law passed by the Majlis last year.
The move came following an emergency meeting of the IAEA board
of governors in Vienna on Saturday which adopted a resolution toreport Iran's
nuclear program to the UN Security Council.
In his order on Saturday, Ahmadinejad denounced the IAEA
decision as being made under the pressure of certain countries and lacking legal
justification.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi on Sunday
morning said that the report of the case to the Security Council would damage
the prospect of a diplomatic solution to the dispute more than harm Iran.
However, Asefi promised that Iran was still willing to solve its
nuclear issue through negotiations with the international community and would
continue cooperation with the IAEA under the NPT and the Safeguard Agreement.
He also said that Tehran would continue negotiating with Russia
on its suggestion that the two countries establish a joint venture on the
Russian soil to enrich uranium for Iran, but called for some revisions to the
plan according to the new situation.
Apart from the signing of the NPT additional protocol, Iran
suspended uranium enrichment in December 2003 and further downrightly suspended
all related peripheral activities in November 2004, paving the way to
negotiations with Europe.
On the other hand, Tehran insisted that such cooperative moves
were taken on the voluntary base and should be exempt from legal binding.
In August 2005, Tehran resumed uranium conversion work, a
precursor to the enrichment, which has paralyzed the bilateral talks with the
European Union (EU) so far.
It further resumed nuclear research work on Jan. 10, a move
prompting the EU powers to call for the IAEA emergency meeting to discuss
reporting the case to the UN Security Council.
The EU holds that Iran's full mastery of nuclear fuel
cycletechnology would possibly lead to military usage, based on the United
States' accusation that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
But Iran insists that its nuclear program is fully peaceful and
aimed at meeting rising domestic demand for electricity.
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