Tehran: Iran's top nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday that Iran would halt all cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog if the Security Council imposes sanctions against it, and warned it might go further and hide its nuclear programme if the West takes any other ‘harsh measures.'
The statements by Ali Larijani were Iran's strongest statement of defiance yet before a Friday deadline the Security Council has given the country to stop all uranium enrichment. They came a day after Iran's president boldly predicted the Security Council would not impose sanctions on Tehran and warned he was thinking about dropping out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
''Military action against Iran will not end our programme,'' Larijani said Tuesday, speaking at a conference on the energy programme. ''If you take harsh measures, we will hide this programme. If you use the language of force, you should not expect us to act transparently.''
He also said flatly that Iran would not abide by the Friday deadline set by the Security Council to suspend all uranium enrichment.
''If you take the first step wrong, the wrong trend will continue. We welcome any logical proposal to resolve the issue. They just need to say why should we suspend,'' Larijani said.
The watchdog agency's chief spokesman, Marc Vidricaire, said on Tuesday the agency would not comment on Iran's threat to scuttle all cooperation if sanctions are imposed.
Vidricaire said the agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, planned no public statements ahead of agency head Mohamed ElBaradei's report to the Security Council and the watchdog agency's 35-nation board of governors, expected by the end of this week.
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