Iran

As Iran yesterday defied the United Nations deadline for freezing its nuclear programme, its ambassador in London said that it had no intention of budging from its position. “For sure, we are going to stress our inalienable right . . . within the bounds of the NPT [Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty] …

Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council ultimatum, a nuclear watchdog said today. In a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said:

World powers today worked on a response to Tehran’s defiance of a UN Security Council ultimatum on mothballing its uranium enrichment programme.

India has banned the export of all material, equipment and technology which could contribute to Iran’s nuclear programme the Indian trade ministry said today.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran vowed on Wednesday to press on with its nuclear fuel program, ignoring a U.N. deadline to freeze uranium enrichment or face broader sanctions, but offered to guarantee it would not try to develop atomic weapons.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Wednesday put finishing touches on a report expected to confirm that Iran continues uranium enrichment activities, a finding that could trigger harsher U.N. Security Council sanctions against Tehran.

Iran wants talks on its nuclear programme but rejects preconditions demanding it freeze the work, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, just ahead of a United Nations deadline for Tehran to back down.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today rejected international demands for his country to suspend its uranium enrichment programme as a UN deadline to do so approached.

The Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov is to travel to Iran for talks with the Iranian leadership on the situation in the region.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday dismissed talk of immediate suspension of uranium enrichment ahead of this week’s UN Security Council deadline despite a recent flurry of Iranian diplomacy that had raised hopes of a compromise.