Iran renewed its threats to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
on Sunday, with its president saying sanctions would be "meaningless" and its
parliament seeking to put a final end to unannounced inspections of its nuclear
facilities.
Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers his speech during a gathering of commanders
of Basij, a paramilitary volunteers group affiliated with the
Revolutionary Guards, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 7, 2006. The Iranian
parliament threatened in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
Sunday to force the government to withdraw from the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty if the United States continued pressuring Tehran
to suspend uranium enrichment. [AP] |
The comments recalled the case of North Korea, which left the treaty in 2003.
Last year Pyongyang declared it had nuclear weapons — unlike Tehran, which says
its nuclear program is only for generating electricity.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would not hesitate to reconsider NPT
membership, speaking as Washington and its allies pressed for a U.N. Security
Council vote to suspend Tehran's uranium enrichment program.
"If a signature on an international treaty causes the rights of a nation be
violated, that nation will reconsider its decision and that treaty will be
invalid," he told the official news agency IRNA.
Iran's parliament made similar threats in a letter to United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan read on state-run radio, saying the dispute over
Iran's nuclear program must be resolved "peacefully, (or) there will be no
option for the parliament but to ask the government to withdraw its signature"
from a protocol to the NPT allowing for intrusive inspections of its nuclear
facilities.
The Iranian letter also said parliament might order Ahmadinejad's government
to review procedures for pulling out of the nuclear treaty, which signatories
may do if they decide extraordinary events have jeopardized their "supreme
interests."
The U.S. is backing attempts by Britain and France to win Security Council
approval for a U.N. resolution that would threaten possible further measures if
Iran does not suspend uranium enrichment — a process that can produce fuel for
nuclear reactors to generate electricity or, if sufficiently processed, to make
atomic weapons.
President Bush, in an interview with ARD German television, said "an
armed Iran will be a threat to peace. It will be a threat to peace in the Middle
East, it will create a sense of blackmail, it will encourage other nations to
feel like they need to have a nuclear weapon. And so it's essential that we
succeed diplomatically."
The Western nations want to invoke Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter that would
allow economic sanctions or military action, if necessary, to force Iran's
compliance. Russia and China, the other two permanent Security Council members —
all of whom have veto power — oppose such moves.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said Sunday he
believed the resolution would move to a vote this week, with or without support
from Moscow and Beijing. He dismissed the Iranian parliament's threat, saying it
would not deter a U.N. resolution.
"It shows they remain desperate to conceal that their nuclear program is in
fact a weapons program," he said.
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said Sunday that
Washington should consider direct nuclear talks with Iran, but added that "there
has to be some kind of glimmer of hope or optimism before we sit down and give
them that kind of legitimacy."
McCain, a possible presidential contender in 2008, told CBS' Face the Nation
that Iran must renounce its call for the extinction of direct talks, McCain
said, are "a tough decision, because here's a country whose rhetoric daily
continues to be the most insulting to the United States and to democracy and
freedom."
But, he said, "it's an option that you probably have to consider."
North Korea agreed last September to give up its nuclear program in exchange
for U.S. aid and security assurances, but negotiations have been stalled since
November, mainly because of Pyongyang's anger over U.S. sanctions for alleged
currency counterfeiting and money laundering.
North Korea escaped punishment by the U.N. Security Council, but Iran's
possible departure from the treaty is likely to bring a tougher response.
Ahmadinejad restated his readiness to jettison treaty membership.
"If a signature on an international treaty causes the rights of a nation be
violated, that nation will reconsider its decision and that treaty will be
invalid," he told the state news agency.
He called threats of sanctions "meaningless" and vowed to "smash their
(U.S.-backed) illegitimate resolutions against a wall."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said any U.N. resolution would be
"completely illegal" and driven by politics.
"It's clear that any action by the U.N. Security Council will leave a
negative impact on our cooperation with the IAEA," he said, adding that such
action would "change the path of cooperation to confrontation."
The IAEA declared in 2002 that Iran had been conducting secret nuclear
activities for decades, though it has never said Tehran has a weapons program.
Iran claims it has that right, including the privilege of enriching uranium,
under its treaty membership, but its opponents claim it ceded that right by
hiding parts of its nuclear program from the international community.
In February, Iran barred intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities by
the IAEA after it was referred to the Security Council. Iran said it had been
implementing the agreement since 2003 voluntarily but it had not won domestic
approval, as necessary, from parliament and the Guardian Council, a powerful
oversight body dominated by Islamic hard-liners.
Iran declared yet again Sunday it would not give up uranium enrichment
despite the building crisis.
"We won't give up our rights and the issue of suspension (of enrichment) is
not on our agenda," Asefi said at his weekly briefing.