Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

FM: Iran's nuclear program is completely peaceful

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

United Nations, New York, March 25, IRNA
Nuclear-Mottaki-UNSC
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that as it has been underlined time and again, Iran's nuclear program is completely peaceful.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday night, he said that Iran has expressed its readiness, taken unprecedented steps and offered several serious proposals to address and allay any possible concern in this regard.

"Indeed, there has been no doubt for us from the very beginning, nor should there be any for the Council, that all these schemes of the co-sponsors of the Resolution are for narrow national considerations, and aimed at depriving the Iranian people of their inalienable rights, rather than emanating from any so-called proliferation concerns," said the minister.

Mottaki noted that this is the fourth time in the last 12 months that in an unwarranted move, orchestrated by a few of its permanent members, the UNSC is being abused to take an unlawful, unnecessary and unjustifiable action against Iran's peaceful nuclear program, which presents no threat to international peace and security and falls therefore outside the Council's Charter-based mandate.

"To give this scheme a semblance of international legitimacy, its initiators first manipulated the IAEA Board of Governor and -- as they acknowledged themselves -- `coerced' some of its members to vote against Iran in the Board, and then have taken advantage of their substantial economic and political power to pressurize and manipulate the UNSC to adopt three unwarranted resolutions within eight months.

"Undoubtedly, those resolutions cannot indicate universal acceptance, particularly when the heads of states of nearly two thirds of UN members, who belong to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the OIC, supported Iran's positions as recently as September 2006 and expressed concern about policies pursued inside the Security Council," he added.

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