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Iran defies on nuke issue as UNSC resorts to sanction measures
18/12/2006 9:55

Iranian leaders kept their hardline stance on the country's controversial nuclear program yesterday while Western powers were trying to seek a sanction resolution against Tehran at UN Security Council (UNSC) for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment work.

The EU trio Britain, France and Germany on Dec. 8 introduced a modified draft resolution to 15 member states of the UNSC and hoped the Security Council could pass it as soon as possible.

According to media reports, the draft requested Iran to cease enrichment and works related to heavy-water reactor and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency experts to carry out snap inspections.

Last week, Western officials said the EU trio, the U.S., Russia and China were making progress toward the resolution that would impose penalties on Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovalso has said consensus in the UNSC on Iran's nuclear program can be reached in the next two weeks if the world powers take a "realistic approach".

As a response, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyed Mohammad Hosseini said Sunday that Tehran's nuclear program had been in the international rules and regulations and Iran would not give up its nuclear activities even UN sanctions imposed.

"We will continue our peaceful nuclear activities," stressed the spokesman at his weekly press conference.

In the mean time, during a visit to the country's Friday elections headquarters, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said"Iranians had already conquered the peak of nuclear progress and the case with the nuclear issue has been closed".

More over, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also stressed Sunday that Tehran views any UNSC resolution on sanctions against Iran as a hostile measure.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart, Mottaki described referral of Iran's nuclear dossier to the UNSC as "illegal and politically-driven".

"When a completely technical issue is pretended to be a security problem, it means that they are politicizing the issue,"he was quoted as saying by local Fars news agency.

These remarks from Tehran's leadership came just two days after Iran's elections of the Assembly of Experts and local councils.

It has been reported that the turnout of both polls were quite strong on Friday out of previous expectation. Government officials have touted the high voters turnout as a "message" to the West and local analysts have also considered the turnout as a cardiotonic for the government to resist Western pressure on the nuclear issue.

"Through their impressive turnout under the current sensitive circumstances, the Iranian people sent a clear message to enemies of Iran's development," the official IRNA news agency quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi as saying, who obviously referred to western critics of Iran's nuclear program.



Xinhua News