Iran: 'Correct' Resolution Or Else

Iran broadened its threats Tuesday over a move to refer it to the U.N. Security Council, saying that unless the U.N. nuclear agency backs down, it will resume uranium enrichment, block inspections of its nuclear facilities and cut trade with countries that supported the resolution.

In another move that suggests a toughening of Iran's position, the hard-line dominated parliament was considering a measure to force the government to bar short-notice intrusive U.N. inspections of its facilities if Iran's right to enrich uranium is not respected by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Iran was considering reducing its trade with those countries that voted for Saturday's resolution, particularly India.

"We will reconsider our economic relations with countries that voted against us," he told a press conference.

"We were very surprised by India," he said. The country is interested in importing Iranian natural gas through a pipeline that will pass through Pakistan.

The IAEA resolution put Iran on the verge of referral to the U.N. Security Council unless Tehran eases suspicions about its nuclear activities. The resolution ordered Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities, including uranium conversion, to abandon construction of a heavy water nuclear reactor and to grant access to certain military locations, individuals and documents.

Iran has rejected the resolution, protesting it was politically motivated and without legal foundation.

Asefi said Tuesday that Iran was asking its European negotiating partners — Britain, France and Germany — and the IAEA for two things.

"First, they should not insist (on the terms of the resolution). Second, they should correct it. If the other parties' reaction is not along these lines, the Islamic Republic of Iran will take these measures," Asefi said.

He said Iran would cease to abide by the "voluntary measures" that it has been implementing as an expression of good will.

"If the IAEA and European countries don't make up for their error, we will cancel all voluntary measures we have taken," he said.

Effectively, this means that Iran would resume enrichment of uranium, which is currently suspended, and disregard the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, under which it grants IAEA inspectors the right to unfettered inspections of its nuclear facilities at short notice.

"The timing for Iran to resume some voluntary suspended activities depends on the behavior of the Europeans. We don't accept the language of force," Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told reporters after addressing a closed session of the parliament Tuesday.

Lawmakers were considering Tuesday the draft of a legislation that would force the government to bar intrusive inspections as long as Iran's right to possess the whole nuclear fuel cycle — from extracting uranium ore to enriching it — is not recognized.

Iran says it has already achieved proficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle but Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday that Iran would not have the capability to enrich uranium — a technology that can produce nuclear fuel or atomic bomb — for more than a year.

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that efforts to deprive Iran of nuclear technology were tantamount to "scientific apartheid."

"Powers that misused nuclear technology and produced atomic bomb are now preventing the goals of others, even to achieve it for peaceful purposes. This is scientific apartheid," state-run television quoted him as saying.

Spokesman Asefi warned that referral to the U.N. Security Council could have unforeseen consequences. The resolution set no date for referral, but said it would be considered later.

"It's always easy to create a crisis, but not easy to control it," Asefi said. "We are giving the IAEA and the Europeans a very serious warning about this."

Asefi said Iran's offer to give foreign countries and companies a role in its nuclear program was a "sincere measure of transparency."

Europeans have disregarded the offer, which was made by Ahmadinejad at this month's U.N. summit in New York.

"What should we do to prove our sincerity?" Asefi asked rhetorically. "We are allowing them to lay their beds inside our facilities."

Asefi reiterated that Iran would never abandon its uranium enrichment program, a right to which it is entitled as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.