Tehran on Friday said the resolution passed against Iran by the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was in violation of international regulations and against the nature of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Iran's representative to the IAEA Ali Akbar Salehi told IRNA that the Islamic Republic of Iran is against the trend of decision-making and the agency's resolution. "The resolution submitted by Australia, Canada and Japan was adopted without any vote or consensus. Iran's representative delegation left the meeting in protest at the decision-making trend and the content of the resolution," Salehi said.
The IAEA governing board on Friday passed a resolution setting Iran an October 31 deadline to prove it had no secret atomic weapons program.
"Some phrases of the resolution were even beyond the additional protocol to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which is an indication that western countries are not willing to investigate the issue technically and legally," he added.
"In the meeting of the board of governors, the western groupcalls for illegal, illegitimate and impractical demands from Iran in line with their political ends," the official noted.
Salehi said that a number of extremist countries including the United States, Britain, Germany and France follow their political goals regardless of Iran's cooperation (with the IAEA) and continuation of such cooperation.
"We did not participate in the decision-making process. Iran cannot participate in the political trends that use the agency as a pretext," he stated.
Iran was given a 45-day deadline to do away perceived shortcomings and respond to (concerns raised by the IAEA) and even all claims against Iran on shortcomings of the country's nuclear programs are correct, the issues would not be solved during the set time. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
