IAEA’s resolution forbids Iran’s nuclear activities

After Iran’s refusal to stop nuclear work the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday urging Iran to halt all nuclear work it resumed earlier this week, but Teheran dismissed the demand as "politically motivated."

Iran rejected a resolution from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency urging it to freeze the uranium processing, which it restarted on Aug. 8, and vowed to become a nuclear fuel exporter within the next decade.

"If Iran doesn't take the steps described in the resolution, we would expect that the next step would be referral to the Security Council," Adam Ereli, deputy State Department spokesman, said Thursday at a press briefing in Washington.

The resolution “expresses serious concern'” and “urges Iran to re-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities" and allow the IAEA to put back seals on equipment at a plant in central Iran, according to the text. U.S. opposition to Iran's program is driven by concern that nuclear materials might be handed to terrorist groups, according to Bloomberg.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei was requested to report on Iran's compliance by Sept. 3 under the resolution. French, German and U.K. diplomats wrote the measure.

Thursday's resolution “is a vote of no-confidence in the agency,” said the Middle Eastern country's chief delegate to the IAEA in Vienna, Cyrus Nasseri, at a press conference Friday in Vienna. “It is absurd.'”

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful and only for the purpose of generating electricity, on Thursday rejected the IAEA resolution as "politically motivated."

"This resolution is politically motivated and has been approvedunder the pressures of the United States and its allies and is void of any legal or rational basis, and (therefore it) is unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.

Asefi accused the EU of breaching agreements reached by the two sides and running counter to efforts to solve the Iranian nuclear crisis.

"By ratifying this resolution, the three European states (Britain, France and Germany) have acted contrary to the spirit of safeguards and negotiations conducted during the past two years as well as the Tehran-Paris agreement," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has not given up its legitimate rights and lays emphasis on peaceful utilization of nuclear technology as before," he said.

Earlier, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator Cyrus Nasseri said in Vienna, Austria, that Iran would not yield and would forge ahead and become a "nuclear fuel producer and supplier within a decade".

Iran voluntarily suspended all its sensitive atomic work in November 2004 after reaching the Paris Agreement with the EU trio,under which Teheran froze work related to nuclear fuel production while negotiating a permanent deal with the EU.

However, earlier this week, Iran rejected the EU's offer of a package of economic and political incentives to permanently abandon its enrichment-related activities, calling it "an insult to the Iranian nation for which the EU must apologize," Xinhua reminds.

On Wednesday, Iran broke UN seals at its uranium conversion plant in the central city of Isfahan and brought the facilities back into operation, arousing fears that the process could be used to help build an atomic bomb.