Iran denies N-arms push, may quit NPT

VIENNA, Nov 30, (Agencies): Iran fiercely denied Friday seeking nuclear weapons and threatened to withdraw from a key treaty aimed at stopping their spread, in another note of defiance just as fresh diplomatic efforts gather pace.

Speaking at a tense UN atomic agency meeting, Iran’s envoy said that no “smoking gun” indicating a covert weapons drive had ever been found and that the West wanted to hijack the agency for their own ends.

Presenting a list of “50 questions and answers,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh said that “no doubt is left that the (International Atomic Energy Agency) file has to be closed immediately.”

He told the closed-door IAEA meeting in Vienna that the six resolutions on Iran passed by the UN Security Council were “illegal” and that Tehran would “never suspend” its programme, according to the text of his remarks.

The meeting followed the release of an IAEA report this month showing that Iran is continuing to defy those UN resolutions by expanding its capacity to enrich uranium, which can be used in peaceful purposes but potentially also in a nuclear bomb.

One Western diplomat called the comments “absolutely ridiculous” and said that it made him “very pessimistic” about renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the long-running crisis.

Soltanieh “did not address any of the issues that have been expressed in the board. It is very clear that the Iranians are not serious,” the diplomat said.

Soltanieh also repeated longstanding Iranian threats that if

Israel bombs it, Tehran “may” withdraw from the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT), which aims to stop the spread of atomic weapons.

Israel, widely believed to have nuclear weapons — it has not signed the NPT, like India and Pakistan, while North Korea withdrew — has refused to rule out military action to prevent its arch-rival from also getting the bomb.

Israel’s envoy to the IAEA, Ehud Azoulay, said he was not surprised by Soltanieh’s comments about the NPT.

“I think they are going to do it anyhow in the near future, so I am not sur-