Date:05/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/05/stories/2008030559901200.htm

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Iran: credibility of UNSC damaged

Special Correspondent

It is under pressure from a few States

“Tehran open to further examination of its nuclear activity”
Accuses U.S. of presenting false resolution to IAEA

NEW DELHI: Reacting to the third round of sanctions imposed on it, Iran on Tuesday said the credibility of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was further damaged because pressure from a few countries prevented it from heeding the judgment of a technical body of the United Nations — the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“While the IAEA clearly acknowledges that Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful and all the outstanding issues have been resolved, some countries deliberately undermine the work of the agency that is part of the U.N. It therefore appears that the UNSC attaches no value even to other U.N. institutions and bodies. It is, therefore, no wonder that the UNSC, which has repeatedly encroached on the mandates and authorities of other U.N. bodies, cannot be trusted to respect the views and judgments of other U.N. agencies,” said Iran’s Ambassador to India Syed Mahdi Nabizadeh.

Although the IAEA recently cleared Iran, Tehran was open to further examination of its nuclear activity by the world body. “In view of certain misunderstandings and questions raised on the civil nuclear programme, Iran concentrated its efforts on removing the misunderstanding. The latest was an action plan under which the IAEA posed questions and Iran answered them before the fixed timetable. Its recent report has confirmed the correctness of Iran’s statement,” he said.

Method of the west

Accusing the U.S. of using the Anglo-French combine to present a false resolution to the IAEA because it had realised that the issue between Iran and IAEA was nearing resolution, the Iranian Ambassador said, “this is the method of the west. They saw eye-catching progress in Iran-IAEA relations and reported some false matters to the IAEA. We expect the U.S. government, instead of trying to politicise the nuclear programme of Iran, should tell its own people that its evaluation of Iran’s nuclear programme was wrong. There is no doubt the U.S. is inventing this pretext to pursue one goal of impairing Iran’s science and technology programmes.”