22 projects to be suspended

Vienna: A 35-country meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday approved the suspension of 22 nuclear technical aid programmes to Iran as part of UN sanctions. A defiant Tehran said it would not bow to pressure on its nuclear programme.

The decision to deprive Iran of 22 projects was taken by consensus and was expected. Even countries on the IAEA board normally supportive of Iran backed the suspension because it was recommended by agency chief Mohammad Al Baradei, on authority of the UN Security Council.

"I have not heard anyone express dissatisfaction" with Al Baradei's recommendations, said Ramzy Ezzeidin Ramzy, Egypt's chief IAEA representative, before the decision, reflecting the meeting's widespread unanimity on the issue.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, dismissed the decision - along with other international moves to pressure his country to suspend uranium enrichment - as the work of a "few countries ... to deprive Iran from its inalienable rights for [the] peaceful use of nuclear energy".

The "Iranian nation is a peace-loving nation but will never tolerate any pressure or intimidation", Soltanieh told the meeting.

He criticised the United States and Britain for their support of Israel, saying its undeclared nuclear programme endangers "both regional peace and security".

The comments were in response to a letter from 17 Arab countries plus Palestinian authority that called for Israel to be put under agency inspections.

The letter asserted that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last year acknowledged that his country had nuclear weapons - something Olmert has denied doing.

Israel, in a brief statement, said it had no plans to change its nuclear policies, according to an IAEA official who was inside the closed meeting.

The suspensions of technical cooperation fell under the provision of UN Security Council sanctions agreed on December 23 last year to punish Iran for defying a council demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment activities.

The five permanent council members now are consulting on additional sanctions after Tehran ignored a new ultimatum to stop enrichment last month.

Council diplomats in New York said these could include a travel ban, an expanded list of people and companies subject to an asset freeze, an arms embargo and trade restrictions, but they cautioned that differences remained.

Before the decision on technical aid, Soltanieh accused the United States and Israel of threatening military attacks on its nuclear facilities and said Security Council sanctions against his country were illegal.

Washington in turn criticised Tehran for ignoring Security Council demands to freeze uranium enrichment and said Iranian "intransigence" in answering questions about its nuclear programme raises concern that it might be seeking to make nuclear arms.

Those comments, inside and on the sidelines of the meeting, came as part of a review of a report by Al Baradei that confirmed Iran had defied a Security Council deadline on enrichment last month.

Soltanieh accused the United States and Israel of "continuing to make threats against Iran's ... [nuclear] facilities".

But he suggested that Tehran's nuclear programme would survive any aggression, citing Al Baradei in declaring that nuclear "knowledge cannot be bombed".

While not directly threatening attacks, both Israel and the United States have not ruled out any option in trying to stop what they say is an Iranian nuclear weapons programme.