Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed his country will “continue on the road to victory” and labelled US President George W Bush a ‘warmonger’ amid moves to increase the pressure on Iran to re-suspend its nuclear programme.
As the United Nations’ Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany agreed in London to bring Iran before the Council, Iran’s top national security official warned against further action.
“If Iran’s case is referred or reported to the Security Council… Iran’s cooperation will decrease,” Ali Larijani told a news conference.
“The government will be obliged to remove suspensions, which includes industrial- scale enrichment, and it will do so,” Mr Larijani said, adding that an important enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran was “ready for operation.”
He also said that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections at nuclear sites would be restricted.
Russia holds out hope
In a bid to keep hopes of a compromise alive, Russia has insisted on deleting any reference in the resolution to specific IAEA statutes that would authorise punitive measures by the UN, a diplomat in Vienna reportedly told the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency.
Russia has also succeeded in delaying any UN action until the next IAEA meeting in March amid concerns that Iran could strike back at the West by halting its oil and gas exports.
“If you impose sanctions theoretically on Iran, then it would be appropriate to ask a question: Who is imposing sanctions on whom?” Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Andrei Denisov told reporters.
“Iran is one of the major suppliers of oil and gas. So, it will be a very strong blow on the international energy market. That is one clear consequence of imposing sanctions,” Mr Denisov added.
Russia has tried to break the standoff by offering to allow uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear programme on Russian territory, but agreement remains out of reach.
Iran, which is the second- biggest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has insisted is sees ‘no reason’ to stop oil exports.
Energy- rich Iran has denied its nuclear facilities are for anything other than civilian energy production and that its uranium enrichment is purely to make reactor fuel.
But enriched uranium can also be used in atomic weapons which the US, Europe and Israel fear Iran is secretly trying to manufacture.
US builds its case
According to the White House, a report by the IAEA indicates Iran has clear intentions of developing a nuclear weapons capability.
“This report… raises questions about machining the uranium into hemispheres,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of documentation of Iran’s nuclear research.
“There’s only one reason why you would try to machine uranium – highly enriched uranium - into hemispheres. You do that because you want to create a nuclear weapon,” Mr McCormack said.
The IAEA’s latest Iranian report also says that Iran has not been fully cooperating with inspections by refusing to give agency inspectors all the information or interviews that they want.
The looming concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions come as US Defence chiefs have announced plans to significantly increase America’s special operations forces to combat what was referred to as the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
“The risk of very powerful lethal weapons moving into the hands of rogue states and/or terrorist networks is real,” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
US Special Operations forces currently draws on 53,000 personnel from diverse military units, including army rangers, navy SEALS and Delta Force Commandos among others.