British FM says onus on Iran in nuke dispute

Iran Focus: London, Jan. 17 – British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described Iran’s decision last week to resume previously-suspended uranium enrichment-related activities at its massive nuclear facility in Natanz as “very unreasonable” and a matter of “serious concern”. Iran Focus

London, Jan. 17 – British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described Iran’s decision last week to resume previously-suspended uranium enrichment-related activities at its massive nuclear facility in Natanz as “very unreasonable” and a matter of “serious concern”.

In an interview on Channel 4 television Monday evening, Straw said that “very extreme” comments by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had called the holocaust a “myth” and said that Israel had to be “wiped off the map”, had made it “more likely to put Iran in the dock”, a reference to the United Nations Security Council.

“I think that as a result of the Iranian’s very unreasonable actions on the nuclear dossier and also the very extreme statements from President Ahmadinejad on other issues, particularly the Holocaust and the, the right of Israel to exist, there is now stronger and more serious concern across the board internationally”, the Foreign Secretary said.

He added that the onus was on Tehran to satisfy the international community that it was not pursuing a nuclear weapons program since it had previously been declared by the International Atomic Energy Agency of having acted over the years in non-compliance with its safeguard obligations.

Straw said that a February 2-3 emergency meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors would likely see Tehran’s nuclear file sent before the UN Security Council, though he added that he could not say for certain.