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Iran says will cut ties with IAEA in case of sanctions

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday that Tehran would suspend its relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if sanctions were imposed.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 00:00 April 25, 2006
  • Gulf News

Tehran: Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday that Tehran would suspend its relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if sanctions were imposed, a step which the United States is pushing for.

"How are you going to prevent our activities by imposing sanctions? If you impose sanctions, Iran will suspend its relations with the agency (IAEA)," Ali Larijani told a conference on nuclear issues.

"If you decide to use sanctions against us, our relations with the agency will be suspended," he said.

The warning came ahead of Friday's deadline set by the UN Security Council for Iran to freeze uranium enrichment.

Larijani said that Iran was expanding its uranium enrichment work. "The first phase was the (uranium) mines and the plant to make yellowcake. The second phase was uranium conversion at Isfahan, and the third phase was research and development at Natanz," Larijani said.

"This work has been completed. A cascade has been put into use, and other cascades will be put into use," he added.

Iran says it wants to enrich uranium - using cascades of centrifuges which purify uranium gas - to make reactor fuel. The regime has also vowed to press on with reaching an industrial-scale enrichment capacity.

The process has sparked concern in the West because it can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.

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