Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=11/19/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAN / NUCLEAR (S O)

NUMBER=2-309991

BYLINE=JAMES MARTONE

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief, Hassan Rohani, says his country will not accept a legal obligation to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. James Martone reports from V-O-A's Middle East Bureau in Cairo the security chief says Tehran will act only voluntarily.

TEXT: Mr. Rohani spoke a day before the International Atomic Energy Agency is to meet to discuss Iran's nuclear program. France, Britain, and Germany have circulated a draft resolution for the meeting of I-A-E-A directors.

The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted Mr. Rohani as saying, "Any sentence in the resolution that turns our voluntary suspension into a legal commitment will be unacceptable for us."

Under strong international pressure over what it says is its peaceful nuclear program, Iran last week provided the I-A-E-A with detailed information about its nuclear activities, agreed to closer inspections of its nuclear facilities, and suspended its uranium enrichment activities, which could be used to make nuclear-bomb material.

Iran has stressed that the suspension of uranium enrichment was only a voluntary and temporary step to resolve the international concerns over its nuclear program. (SIGNED)

NEB/JM/MAR/RAE/KL