Iran may reconsider nuclear talks

Iran says the recent UN Security Council resolution against the country may cause Tehran to reconsider negotiations over its nuclear program.  

According to Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani, the UN Security Council approval of a new resolution against Iran over its enrichment activities has come as a shock because prior to the measure there had been talk of setting a timeline for nuclear talks.

“This move once again provides clearer indication that US verbiage regarding Iran’s nuclear issue is based on mere political pretense and not on legal proceedings,” he said.

His warning comes after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in its September 15 report on Iran, declared that it could not find any ‘components of a nuclear weapon’ or ‘related nuclear physics studies’ in the country.

The senior Iranian official blasted the West over claims that it is interested in building confidence through negotiations, saying such resolutions downgrade the value of negotiations to that of a political game and may prompt Iran to evaluate whether negotiations should continue with the P5+1.

The P5+1 group – the five members of the UN Security Council (the US, China, Russia, France and the UK), plus Germany – passed a resolution on Saturday in New York against Iran.

The resolution does not impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic but reaffirms three previous sanctions, calling on Tehran to halt uranium enrichment and increase cooperation with the UN nuclear agency.

Western countries accuse Iran of conducting ‘studies of weaponization’, pressuring the UN nuclear watchdog to probe into the issue based on information they claim to have found on a laptop.

The UN nuclear watchdog has thus requested Iran to provide the agency with documents to shed light on the ‘alleged studies of weaponization’, accusing the country of withholding information needed to explain ‘serious’ intelligence.

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, has responded with a request that the agency provide Tehran with the original documents. Tehran says with the original documents it may be able to prove the allegations to be based on ‘fabricated’ data.

The UN nuclear watchdog, however, says it is not in a ‘position’ to do so – Washington has only provided the IAEA with copies of the documents.

MRD/MMA/MMN/AA/WY