Spokesman: Iran not afraid of UN Security Council

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 19 – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman in an interview with a Saudi newspaper on Friday stated that “Tehran is not afraid of its [nuclear”> file being sent to [the United Nations’”> Security Council”.
Hamid-Reza Asefi told the daily Okaz, “Sending Iran’s case to the Security Council will not make us abandon our peaceful nuclear activities”. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 19 – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman in an interview with a Saudi newspaper on Friday stated that “Tehran is not afraid of its [nuclear”> file being sent to [the United Nations’”> Security Council”.

Hamid-Reza Asefi told the daily Okaz, “Sending Iran’s case to the Security Council will not make us abandon our peaceful nuclear activities”.

Asefi said that Iran’s decisions regarding its suspected nuclear weapons program were made at the highest political level, a reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Asefi said that Tehran rejected a package of incentives that Europe had offered it in return for it to abandon its nuclear fuel cycle because the offer was political in nature. The EU trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom had proposed Iran a range of incentives in an attempt to secure a deal ensuring Iran’s nuclear program remain peaceful, however Tehran rejected the offer and recommenced suspended nuclear work at its Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, central Iran, which it had undertaken not to do under the November 2004 Paris Agreement.

“It is not the end of the world if Iran’s nuclear file is sent before the Security Council”, Asefi said.

Asefi went on to say that any further negotiations with the EU would take place provided that the Europeans did not place any pre-conditions on the talks such as asking Iran to suspend its nuclear activities at the Isfahan plant.

The West believes that Tehran is secretly working to develop atomic weapons under the smokescreen of nuclear technology. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, called on Iran last week to return to the negotiation table and suspend all nuclear fuel cycle activities.