A senior Iranian lawmaker warned that his country would limit
the inspections by the UN atomic watch dog to its nuclear sites if
Tehran is imposed sanctions over its nuclear disputes, the
semi-official ISNA news agency reported Sunday.
"There's no doubt that the space for International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) inspectors would be limited if taking such a step (UN
sanctions), and their current opportunities will be denied,"
Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of Iran's parliamentary national security
commission, was quoted as saying.
Borujerdi made the remarks while representatives from Britain,
France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States were
discussing possible measures on Iran after it's refusal to suspend
uranium enrichment work by Aug. 31.
The high ranking lawmaker also warned the European Union (EU)
not to push Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council for
possible sanctions, saying "they will miss a valuable opportunity
if they leave the talks and they will suffer more losses than Iran
by this decision."
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy
chief Javier Solana had reached an 11-point accord and
"negotiations could move forward on this basis to reach a result
satisfying both sides", he added.
However, according to Solana, the talks between Iran and the EU,
which have been staged for four rounds, had failed to reach an
agreement. Solana said last week that talks with Iran had broken
down.
In recent days, Iran's top officials, especially President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have reiterated many times that Iran would not
step back on its legal nuclear rights, warning the West not to
imagine that the country would suspend uranium enrichment for even
one day.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in late July,
urging Tehran to suspend by Aug. 31 all enrichment-related and
reprocessing activities, including research and development, or
face prospect of sanctions.
Despite Tehran's failure to meet the UN demand, EU foreign
ministers decided in September to maintain serious talks with
Tehran in efforts to solve Iran's nuclear issue through
diplomacy.
(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2006)
