Britain denounces Iran for ignoring UN resolutions
Published: Thursday, November 20, 2008
17:30GMT—12:30PM/EST
UK – IAEA – MILIBAND – REACTIONS
Washington, 20 November (IranVNC)—Britain today denounced Tehran for defying United Nations Security Council resolutions by continuing to enrich uranium, and called on Iran’s allies to urge that country to come clean with the international community on its nuclear dossier.
“Iran continues to enrich and to increase its capacity to enrich in breach of five UN Security Council resolutions,” Reuters quoted Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell as saying in a statement released today.
Rammell added: “Iran’s continuing failure to cooperate with the IAEA or to answer its questions increases our concerns about Iran’s nuclear program and its intentions. It is vital that Iran urgently and comprehensively provides the IAEA with all the requested information, documentation and access.”
Yesterday, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei presented a report saying that the agency had been unable to make “substantive progress” toward confirming the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, due to a lack of cooperation by Tehran.
ElBaradei’s report, which covered developments since September 2008, said that Iran was planning to install 3,000 centrifuges at the beginning of 2009 and that it had made 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium – which some experts say, is enough to make a bomb.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, in an interview published today in the al-Hayat newspaper, urged Iran’s friends and allies to convince Iran to come clean on its nuclear program.
Miliband told the Beirut office of the newspaper that it is the “right time” for those countries that say they have an influence on and friendship with Tehran, to convince Iran to come clean on its nuclear file.
He went on to urge Iran’s friends to “use what they have in terms of influence, to explain to Iran that it broke its international commitments… and that this issue is bad for the region.”
Miliband also visited Syria, a close ally of Iran, Israel and the Palestinian territories, during his Middle East visit.
For his part, Mohammad Sa’idi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said today that Tehran would continue to have “comprehensive and constructive interactions” with the IAEA.
Sources: Reuters, al-Hayat in Arabic
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