Vienna, Sept 30, IRNA - Iran's Ambassador to IAEA warned UN nuclear watchdog here Monday not to breach articles of its own letter of association and not to deviate from the path of pursuing its major defined objectives.

Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh who was speaking at Annual General Assembly Conference of the agency furthermore listed the progressive objectives of the IAEA at the time of its establishment, adding, "During the course of the past few years in dealing with Iran's case the agency has intended to turn the voluntary moves into legal obligations and entered the realm of a interfering in conventional military productions of countries, beyond IAEA's letter of association."

Soltaniyeh added, "On pretext verifying claims' truthfulness based on requests made by a number of Western members, the IAEA has even at times threatened the national security of our country."

Emphasizing that Iran will not permit that trend to continue, he said, "We should not forget the fact that as it is mentioned in the letter of association of the agency that the IAEA was established half a century ago with a progressive, and not regular objectives.

"But in some cases, based on political intentions of a number of Western countries, particularly the United States, have interfered in the activities of the IAEA Secretariat, weakened it, and even taken instrumental advantage of it."

Soltaniyeh added, "The Islamic Republic of Iran emphatically asks entire countries that think in line with us, that comprise the majority of IAEA members today, to be extremely alert, keeping in mind the current trend of deviations from the spirit and text of the agency's letter of association."

He then referred to Iran's planning to provide the energy it needs relying on the production of nuclear reactors, adding, "The Bushehr Nuclear Reactor was initially scheduled to begin energy production thirty years ago, but due to irresponsible conduct of its Western contractors the project was neither completed, nor did they pay the due fines due to Iran's huge losses because of their breaching of the terms of their contracts."

Iran's Ambassador at the agency meanwhile said, "I want this point to be recorded that such unjustifiable and irregular moves as suspension of enrichment, or truthfulness verifications are beyond the barriers of the NPT and have harmed Iran's national security greatly, which we are now determined to remunerate in the process of future interactions."

Soltaniyeh furthermore referred to ensured access to the fuel needed for reactors as another source of concern, arguing, "Lack of any obligation in the texts of documents for ensuring the provision of fuel is a fact that should not be ignored by anyone."

He emphasized, "No one would risk and make billions of dollars investment at a reactor for production of whose fuel there is absolutely no guarantee, while the value of the needed fuel is truly small compared to the needed investment for constructing a reactor." According to him, keeping in mind the little trust in contractors that provide nuclear fuel, Iran was obliged to produce a part of the nuclear fuel it needs for its light water reactors, which was why we set up our indigenous enrichment factories commissioned to produced lowly enriched uranium."

He added, "For the same reason, Iran got involved in serious activities in al phases of the nuclear fuel production cycle, ranging from excavation from uranium mines, such as the Saqand and Gachin mines, establishment of UFC factories, uranium enrichment at such plants as Natanz Nuclear Complex, and establishment of a nuclear fuel production factory whose construction is nearly finished now." Iran's permanent ambassador said, "During the course of the recent years a number of proposals for multilateral production of nuclear fuel have been presented, but a precise survey shows that in none of them the concerns and worries of developing countries, keeping in mind their historic deprivation in having access to nuclear fuel technology, are considered."

He added, "Almost all of them are devoid of practical measures regarding probability of implementation and being non-discriminatory, as the agency's letter of association stresses, and therefore, any further discussion on multilateral presentation of nuclear fuel should be based on cooperation among entire (volunteer) member countries, and unanimous decision-making, free from harming the natural right of member countries for choosing to produce own manufactured, national nuclear fuel."

Elsewhere in his comments, Soltaniyeh emphasized that Iran is fully committed to fundamentals of non proliferation, adding, "On behalf of my affiliated government, I express serious concern regarding non-commitment of nuclear countries in heeding their duties regarding non proliferation in accordance with Article 6 of the NPT and the general soul of the agency's letter of association." He said that proliferation of nuclear arms in other countries is a result of such violations, as well as the double standards observed in application of the NPT, asking the IAEA to present a report on non commitment of the United States, Britain, and France in heeding their duties in accordance with Article 1 of the NPT."

He meanwhile reiterated that those countries' full scale and continual cooperation in military nuclear field enabled the Zionist regime to construct its nuclear arsenal.

Soltaniyeh added, "The representative delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the previous session of the IAEA General Assembly and the sessions of Board of Governors that followed that session, requested that the agency would send a verification delegation to inspect the nuclear capabilities of Israel, therefore, the agency's General Assembly, as its highest ranking body, should commission the IAEA Secretariat to survey and report on the matter as soon as possible."

He also referred to the shameful silence of Western countries regarding the Zionist regime's nuclear warheads and arsenal, coupled with that regime's recent aggressions against other countries, which leaves not doubt on need for immediate reforms at the UN, particularly at its Security Council, and appropriate moves to check the recent course of negative moves at the IAEA, including the prevailing poisonous atmosphere at its Board of Governors.

He said that following very intensive series of inspections, the IAEA Secretary General many times reported to the entire world that the agency has traced no sign of Iran's deviation towards forbidden objectives in its nuclear program.

Iran's ambassador reiterated, "Islamic Republic of Iran is resolutely determined to continue cooperation with the IAEA, in accordance with the NPT, but will by no means yield to unjustifiable and illegal interference of the UN Security Council in Iran's nuclear case."

He added, "Such interferences have absolutely no effect in our national will to pursue our peaceful nuclear activities, including enrichment."

Soltaniyeh at the end emphasized, "The UN Security Council resolutions and such punishments as sanctions aimed at depriving the great Iranian nation of its absolute rights would only make our nation more resolute in pursuing its righteous move.

He said, "Such moves would also definitely create a negative atmosphere that would affect the course of constructive negotiations, which were from the very beginning initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran that has always stressed the need for resuming them without any preconditions."

... Payvand News - 09/30/08 ...

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