Reuters: Iran said on Wednesday the United States could feel “harm and pain” if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran’s nuclear research and Tehran vowed to pursue the program come what may.
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran said on Wednesday the United States could feel “harm and pain” if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran’s nuclear research and Tehran vowed to pursue the program come what may.
“The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll,” it said in a statement obtained by Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. nuclear watchdog board meeting in Vienna.
Iran has accused Washington of helping to engineer an International Atomic Energy Agency board vote a month ago to report Tehran’s atomic project to the Security Council.
Iran denies Western suspicions it is secretly trying to build atomic bombs, saying it seeks only nuclear-generated electricity.
“In any case, we will continue to exercise our research and development activities based on our right,” the statement said.
“There are two options before us. Either to compromise and cooperate or go for confrontation. We hope and spare no effort that the first option will be realized,” it added, alluding to now stalled diplomacy to resolve the crisis.
An Iranian collision course with the council looked more likely after Tehran brushed aside what EU diplomats said was a Russian offer to let it do some atomic research if it refrained from enriching uranium on an industrial scale for 7-9 years.
The United States and its key European Union allies Britain, France and Germany also rebuffed the idea because they said it would not have prevented Iran perfecting bomb technology via enrichment research.
