Mottaki calls on Western states to avoid making hasty decisions
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, Feb 1, IRNA
Iran-Nuclear-FM
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Tuesday evening called on European states, China, Russia and other influential countries to act wisely, carefully and correctly when making decisions on the Iran nuclear case in order to avoid further escalating the current standoff.
His remarks were made during a televised program with the Channel 2 of the Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) in London.
Mottaki said that the emergency meeting of the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scheduled on Thursday (tomorrow) would likely be postponed.
The 35-nation board was expected to begin their two-day emergency meeting in Vienna tomorrow to decide whether Iran should be referred to the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear programs.
Referring to his talks with Western officials on the sidelines of the international donors' conference for Afghanistan held in London on Tuesday, Mottaki said, "We tried to tell them that the language of force is no longer useful in today's international relations.
"Today, neither the US nor any other world power can use threats to impose their ideas not only on Iran but on any other entity for that matter," stressed the foreign minister.
Asked on the subjects he discussed in his meetings with diplomats in London, Mottaki said that Iran's nuclear case was the major issue he discussed with them as well as with UN officials and his counterparts from other countries.
In the past two days Mottaki has held meetings with high-level officials of foreign states and international organizations such as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Foreign Ministers Jack Straw of Britain, Sergei Lavrov of Russia and Frank Walter-Steinmeier of Germany.
He has also met with the deputy foreign minister of Japan and disarmament minister of New zealand.
Mottaki said the officials he talked with "have to some extent expressed dissatisfaction over Tehran's resumption of nuclear research on January 9."
Saying that the voluntary suspension of research activities by Iran more than a year ago was "unacceptable from the very beginning," the foreign minister said that he had made it clear in his meetings with the officials in London that Iran's "research activities are different from production of nuclear fuel and that its suspension of nuclear activities was a voluntary move designed to build confidence in the international community on its nuclear activities." Asked about the outcome of the meeting Tuesday of the Security Council's 5 permanent members plus Germany (5+1 Group), Mottaki said:
"Aside from failing to reach a written agreement on the issue, they pretended to be in agreement on the need to report Iran to the UNSC during their February 2-3 meeting in Vienna. The referral, course, will not mean that the SC will already be making a decision on the issue," the minister stressed.
Asked if the 5+1 Group in the meeting had agreed to "refer" or "report" Iran to the UNSC, Mottaki said that the "US had from the very beginning been after referring Iran to the Council for imposition of sanctions but that the decision of the group on Monday evening was only to report Tehran to the body."
"From the legal viewpoint," Mottaki clarified, "referral of a case to the UNSC normally means getting the body to decide and this means that the case, as far as the IAEA, is concerned is over." However, "reporting a case to the UNSC means that it would be returned to the agency again," he added.
The foreign minister noted that during his "long discussions" with Straw, Lavrov and Walter-Steinmeier, he brought out "the significance of the law passed by the Iranian parliament, which does not make a distinction whether Tehran's nuclear dossier is `referred' or `reported' to the UNSC. In either case, he said, "the government would be bound to end its voluntary cooperation" with the nuclear watchdog.
Mottaki also stressed to the officials that in either case (referral or reporting), the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which Iran has been implementing would be "the first victim."
"The Additional Protocol is being implemented in Iran without having the greenlight from the Majlis and on a purely voluntary basis to build confidence on Iran's nuclear programs and in light of Tehran's cooperation with the IAEA in its nuclear activities," stressed the foreign minister.
He further said that during his meetings with his European counterparts he made it clear to them that Iran "fully understood the implicatins of a referral or reporting of its nuclear case to the UNSC."
"We have only two options," Mottaki said.
He said the first option is to leave Iran's nuclear case without further argument during the February 2-3 meeting in Vienna.
The second, he said, is to ask for a postponement of the Vienna meeting until the IAEA meets in March 6 (when it is expected to give its final report on Iran's nuclear activities) and thereby "give the parties enough time to reach a comprehensive agreement."
He said that if the IAEA's governing board decides negatively against Iran in its meetings on Thursday and Friday "this would naturally be followed by a countermeasure" from Iran.
"And if they talk about a referral to the Security Council," the minister added, "then Iran would stop its cooperation (with IAEA) as of Saturday."
However, Mottaki was confident there would be some member states of the UNSC in the IAEA's governing board that would oppose referral of Iran's nuclear case to the council if and when the appropriate resolution is passed on Thursday or Friday.
Mottaki recalled that one of the foreign ministers in the London 5+1 meeting, without mentioning his name, told him that "the final statement of the 5+1 meeting was in fact the statement of the presiding state -- Britain.)
"Reports coming from Vienna said that the Non-Aligned Movement has issued a statement at the end of its meeting in South Africa strongly opposing referral of Iran's nuclear case to the UNSC and urging further discussions on it in the IAEA," Mottaki said.
He further said that UN chief Annan, during their meeting in London, also strongly urged continuation of the nuclear talks within the confines of the IAEA.
The foreign minister said it would be wise for the IAEA to choose the second option and postpone tomorrow's meeting.
"Referring Iran to the UNSC or reporting it to the body is not legally acceptable," Mottaki argued, reiterating that "Iran has the legal right to conduct nuclear research."
The foreign minister also said that referring Iran's nuclear case to the UNSC would put in question the wisdom of the Russian proposal.
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