Iran’s Ahmadinejad ups ante in nuclear dispute

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic would lift all suspension on uranium enrichment and end snap inspection of its nuclear facilities if it was referred to the United Nations Security Council. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic would lift all suspension on uranium enrichment and end snap inspection of its nuclear facilities if it was referred to the United Nations Security Council.

“If Iran’s nuclear case is referred to the Security Council, in accordance with the law passed in the Majlis, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be forced to end its voluntary enforcement of the [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s”> Additional Protocol”, the hard-line president said.

The state-run ISNA news agency said that Ahmadinejad made the threat in a telephone conversation with his South African counterpart.

The announcement came a day after the five permanent members of the Security Council along with Germany announced that they would seek to support the reporting of Tehran’s nuclear file to the top UN security body after it unilaterally breached its agreements to suspend uranium enrichment-related activities at its nuclear site in Natanz.

“Some countries want for this energy to be exclusively under their control and to deprive other nations of the world from its ample resources. In this regard they think that if they prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from obtaining peaceful nuclear technology they will be able to control other countries”, Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad’s comments followed a similar warning by the Secretary-General of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who said earlier in the day that the referral or reporting of the Islamic Republic’s suspected nuclear weapons file to the Security Council would mean the “end of diplomacy”.