Iran Rejects UN Resolution, Pledges to Be Nuclear (Update1)
By Ladane Nasseri
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a United Nations resolution imposing sanctions on his country as a ``scrap of paper'' and said the world would have to accept Iran as a nuclear power.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously yesterday in favour of imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. The sanctions include a ban on materials and technology that could be used to build a nuclear bomb.
Whether Western countries ``like it or not, Iran is a nuclear country and it is in their interest to live alongside a nuclear Iran,'' Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying today by the state-run Fars news agency.
Iran is the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of the world's oil. It sits on one side of the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Nations including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait currently ship most of their crude exports through the waterway.
The UN resolution requires Iran to halt uranium enrichment and heavy-water projects that the U.S. and its European allies have said may lead to the development of nuclear weapons. It freezes the financial assets of 12 named individuals and 11 groups such as the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The measure also requires the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report on Iran's compliance within 60 days. ``Further appropriate measures'' such as economic penalties and severance of diplomatic relations will be required if Iran doesn't comply, the resolution says.
Nuclear Program
The security council's vote will spur Iran to run its nuclear program ``in a firmer, more organized and more decisive way than before,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying today by state television.
Iran will ``start the installation of 3,000 centrifuges in its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz,'' Hosseini said in a press conference today, according to the television report.
Centrifuges produce concentrated uranium, which can be used in nuclear reactors or weapons. Iran says it needs the fuel to generate electricity.
The Iranian parliament agreed today to discuss ``urgently'' a bill which urges the government to reconsider its cooperation with the IAEA, state television reported.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: December 24, 2006 06:37 EST
