Iran: IAEA inspections could end

WORLD / IAEA

 Iran: IAEA inspections could end
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-08 09:20

Iran could stop U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities, its top envoy
said Friday, as tens of thousands of Iranians rallied in support of their
country's nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state-run TV that Iran would be
entitled to put an end to unfettered inspections by the International
Atomic Energy Agency unless it changes its resolution on Iran at a
November meeting.

Last month, the U.N. agency passed a resolution warning Iran it would be
referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions unless it
allayed fears about its nuclear program.

An Iranian worshipper holds up the Koran in front of a big mural of
Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) during a demonstration after Friday prayers
ceremonies in Tehran October 7, 2005.[Reuters]
"Definitely it would be the right of Iran to discontinue
confidence-building measures, including (unfettered inspections), if the
resolution is not amended at the next meeting of the IAEA," Mottaki said
after visiting Gulf states Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab
Emirates to drum up support for Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons �� a
charge Iran denies. The IAEA has called on Iran to cease its uranium
enrichment activities until such accusations have been conclusively
refuted.

The IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, who along with his organization won
the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, said he spoke about Iran with
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Iran's nuclear program.

Iranians chant slogans to support Iran's nuclear program, in Tehran on
Friday Oct. 7, 2005. [AP]
Describing his phone conversation with Rice, who called to congratulate
him, ElBaradei said that they both "agreed that we will have to continue
to work together" on issues including dispelling suspicions about Iran's
nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Iranians heeded government calls and held
rallies across the country to back Iran's nuclear activities after
attending Friday prayer services.

Demonstrators poured out of mosques in downtown Tehran chanting: "Nuclear
suspension is not possible anymore" and "Death to America."

"The demonstrations have two messages; first that Iranian people know
that their enemies thwart Iran of advancing and the second that Iran has
to resist pressures," state-run TV said in a commentary.

Uranium enrichment does not violate the terms of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory. But key IAEA
members, including the U.S. and European nations, want Iran to
permanently scrap enrichment plans as a confidence-building measure,
something Tehran says it is not prepared to do.

Talks between Britain, Germany and France �� which negotiated on behalf
of the 25-nation European Union �� and Iran collapsed in early August
after Iran resumed uranium reprocessing activities at its Uranium
Conversion Facility in Isfahan, in central Iran. Tehran had suspended
uranium conversion work under a November 2004 deal with the European
troika.

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