Additional protocol first casualty if Iran referred to UN: Mottaki
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Feb 1, IRNA
UK Straw-Iran Mottaki
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told his British counterpart Jack Straw Wednesday that Iran would stop implementing Additional Protocol if its peaceful nuclear case is referred to the UN Security Council.
At a meeting with Straw, Mottaki said that the threat of report Iran, issued in British statement following a lengthy meeting of the foreign ministers of the Security Council's five permanent members in London on Monday, was politically motivated.
The decision would not only end Iran's voluntary cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency but will seriously damage the compromise plans proposed by Russia, Mottaki warned, according to sources close to the bilateral talks.
The meeting between the two foreign ministers was arranged on the sidelines of Mottaki's attendance at a two international conference on Afghanistan in London, which opened on Tuesday.
The Iranian minister said there was no effective difference between Iran's case being reported or referred to the UN and that no one in Iran wanted to alter the parliamentary resolution on the Additional Protocol.
"The Additional Protocol will be the first casualty," he added.
At the meeting with Straw, he described the claim that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear arms as a 'big lie' that was propagated by the US government and repeated by a number of British officials.
The charges, Mottaki added, were being used as a cover for Washington's foreign policy failures over the last two years.
Mottaki also called on the EU to postpone an emergency meeting of IAEA board meetings, opening in Vienna on Thursday and said that instead, Europeans should use the opportunity to resume talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive agreement.
2220/345/2322/1412
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