Iran makes fresh threat on Security Council referral

By Gareth Smyth and Najmeh Bozorgmehr
February 1, 2006
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/45db1914-9365-11da-a978-0000779e2340.html

Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, said on Thursday that Tehran would resume all suspended parts of its nuclear programme “as quickly as possible” if Thursday’s board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency sent Iran’s case to the UN Security Council.
Mr Larijani also said he saw no “signs of life” in a Russian proposal floated as a compromise under which Moscow would allay international concerns over Tehran’s programme by enriching uranium in Russia.
He repeated previous policy that if the IAEA voted to involve the Security Council– as a meeting of the five permanent members (P5) of the Council recommended on Monday – Iran would end its two-year suspension of uranium enrichment and stop implementing the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, under which Tehran accepts IAEA inspections.
“Natanz [Iran’s enrichment plant] is ready and we need only report to the IAEA to resume activities,” he said.
Iran would react in the same way if sent to the Security Council, he stressed, regardless of whether the IAEA used the words “inform”, “report” or “refer”.
He said it was irrelevant whether the IAEA asked for a Council discussion in March rather than immediately, thereby dismissing a submission to the IAEA from France, Germany and the UK yesterday that would in effect give Iran a month to reinstate its suspension of uranium enrichment.
The resolution asks Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA chief, “to report to the Security Council of the United Nations” demands including the reinstatement of Iran’s freeze on uranium enrichment and greater co-operation with IAEA inspectors.
Mr Larijani’s comments on Russia came despite Russian and Chinese diplomats being in Tehran to discuss the crisis, and despite a meeting of Russian and Iranian officials scheduled for mid-February in Moscow. He said Moscow’s proposal could be studied only “under normal conditions” and not under “the current radical atmosphere”.
Mr Larijani’s evident exasperation reflects a wider frustration in Tehran with Russia. One regime insider told the FT yesterday that Iranian officials had misinformed Iran’s leadership as to Russia’s position in the run-up to Monday’s P5 meeting.
“Either our negotiators misunderstood the situation or they were misled,” he said. “Hence the P5 meeting gave Iran a sudden shock. We hadn’t expected referral to come as early as this.”
In a related development an IAEA note prepared for Thursday’s meeting says a document that Iran has shown to the IAEA described procedures “related to the fabrication of nuclear weapons components”.