Iran: New Legal Basis for New Sanctions

Source: Alalam.ir, 23-2-2008
TEHRAN--Iran sees no legal basis for a new resolution against Tehran after the world nuclear agency reported Tehran as having answered all nuclear questions, a top security official said Saturday.
Javad Vaidi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the ISNA news agency: "If the Security Council wants to issue a resolution it will be legally and technically baseless."
The UN nuclear agency reported on Friday that it had made "quite good progress" in its long-running probe into Iran's nuclear program.
Tehran has defied two rounds of UN Security Council resolutions over its uranium enrichment activities which are allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday Iran had answered all questions about its nuclear program.
Iran hailed the report as a success, saying it proved that Western accusations that it seeks atomic weapons are baseless.
Uranium enrichment lies at the center of the dispute over Iran's nuclear activities and the Islamic Republic has turned Western demands to stop its enrichment activities down.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful and says it has a right to enrichment to make fuel and meet its population's growing energy needs as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Friday's IAEA report came amid a new push by Western powers for a third package of UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran.
Vaeedi also told Alalam Friday that following the report by ElBaradei, the case should be treated as an ordinary case.
He said: "The IAEA report explicitly says Iran has provided answers to all remaining questions."
"It is clear that what Iran has put at the IAEA disposal and its inspectors are in conformity with the Agency's information. The concluding part of the report clearly cites that all the remaining problems have been fully settled," Vaeedi added.
"So, with settlement of the problems practically no more issue remains on the table and all the issues have thus been solved at the IAEA. The conclusion will hence prepare the ground for treatment of the country's case at the IAEA as an ordinary issue from now on."
He went on to say that the US and some Western states are trying to undermine the credibility of the UN's nuclear agency.
ElBaradei circulated his latest report on nuclear safeguards in Iran to the Agency's Board of Governors on Friday, the 35-member policymaking body. The report outlines developments since the director general's report of 15 November 2007.
ElBaradei in his 11-page report announced settlement of such issues as the source of contamination at a technical university in Tehran, polonium 210 and Gachin mine.
The IAEA Board of Governors will discuss the report when it next convenes in Vienna on 3 March.