VARIOUS: Iran vows never to shelve its nuclear programme, defying threat of sanctions as a United Nations (UN) deadline expires

Iran vowed on Thursday (August 31) never to shelve its nuclear programme, defying the threat of sanctions as a United Nations (UN) deadline fell due for Tehran to stop work that the West fears could lead to atomic bombs. At a news conference in Jordan with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah al-Khatib, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, responded to a question on the possibility of the UN security council imposing sanctions on Iran, saying did not know what the next steps taken would be. "That is an issue in the hands of the (United Nations) Security Council. Now that the deadline has passed, I know that there were attempts being made to organise a meeting between Iran and the other six, the other six players. The meeting has not taken place yet. Even though the deadline has expired I don't think they will act tomorrow and I will need to be in touch with the players to find out how they intend to proceed," Annan said in a joint news conference with Al Khatib. Washington says world powers are poised to begin discussing punitive measures next week against Iran if, as expected, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports Tehran has ignored the U.N. demand to stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31. In a televised speech earlier on Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinehjad said Iran would not yield to pressure, defying the threat of sanctions as a UN deadline fell due for Tehran to stop work that the West fears could lead to atomic bombs. "Everyone should know that, the Iranian nation will not yield to pressure over its rights," Ahmadinehjad said addressing a crowd of hundred of people. "The roots of the problems are that the heads of America want to resolve issues world-wide through using force, arms and bombs," he continued. Iran says it wants atomic energy only for electricity, although it hid sensitive research from UN inspectors for almost 20 years and has hindered U.N. investigations since. Western leaders suspect a disguised weapons project and the U.N. Security Council has ordered it to suspend the work. In the days before the deadline, Iran launched a heavy-water production plant and pressed ahead with enriching uranium -- albeit in small, insignificant amounts -- at its pilot centrifuge site in Natanz, diplomats said. But Iran, in an Aug. 22 reply to an offer from six world powers of trade incentives not to enrich, suggested it was open to negotiations on the scope of its programme. European foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani agreed by telephone on Thursday to meet soon in hopes of clarifying Iran's response, Solana's spokeswoman said. The exact date and venue were undecided. Some U.S. allies in the European Union had asked for talks with Tehran to explore its reply instead of resorting quickly to sanctions at the Council, Western diplomats said. In a possible nod to EU concerns, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that even if sanctions discussions began, Iran could still opt to halt enrichment work and spur broader negotiations to implement the package of inducements. The Security Council asked Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the nuclear watchdog IAEA, to spell out on Aug. 31 if Iran had complied with the deadline set in a July 31 resolution. Concerns about Iran's intentions have been fanned by its record of hiding sensitive nuclear work from the IAEA for 18 years, failure to cooperate fully with agency probes and calls for Israel's destruction, Western officials say. ElBaradei's report may state that Iran has stonewalled IAEA inquiries into the nature of its nuclear activity to a standstill, one senior diplomat close to the agency said. Iran is withholding answers to IAEA questions as bargaining chips for crunch talks with the big powers, diplomats say. IAEA probe targets since 2003 include plutonium experiments, alleged administrative links between processing of uranium ore, explosives tests and a missile warhead design, and black-market acquisitions of parts for centrifuge enrichment machines. Moscow and Beijing, keen to protect heavy energy contracts with Tehran and seeing no imminent threat from its nuclear programme, urged a return to diplomacy after Iran's careful response to the incentives package. EU nations, for their part, prefer to find a compromise with Iran rather than isolate one of their biggest oil suppliers.

ITN Source | August 31, 2006

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