Iran warned that an October deadline to prove its nuclear aims are peaceful could backfire, suggesting it could make Tehran turn even more secretive instead of opening its program for full outside perusal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors voted Friday to approve a US-backed resolution imposing an Oct. 31 deadline on Tehran to clear up questions about its nuclear program.
Chief Iranian delegate Ali Akbar Salehi then walked out in protest. Iranian officials had repeatedly warned that imposing a deadline and insisting on other tough language in the resolution would aggravate nuclear tensions.
"We will have no choice but to have a deep review of our existing level and extent of engagement with the agency," Salehi said, suggesting that Tehran might reduce or even break off links -- moves that would doom inspection attempts to probe Iran's nuclear secrets.
A decision last November by North Korea to renounce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has shut the outside world out of its secretive nuclear activities even as the regime openly threatens to make nuclear weapons.
If the next board meeting in November determines that Iran has not complied with the treaty banning the spread of nuclear arms, the noncompliance must reported to the UN Security Council, where reaction could range from criticism to economic sanctions.
The US compared the situation to Iraq, noting that Baghdad had defied agency inspectors and hid plans to make nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction ahead of the spring invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
But diplomats at the meeting warned against seeking parallels between the neighbors.
And Salehi -- whose decision to walk out in protest was a first in recent agency memory -- accused the US of provoking the protest.
"At present, nothing pervades their appetite for vengeance, short of confrontation and war," he told the meeting. "It is no secret that the current US administration ... entertains the idea of invasion of yet another territory as they aim to re-engineer and reshape the entire Middle East region."
"We reject the ultimatum in this draft," he said, calling it a "disaster for the agency."
The resolution, submitted by Australia, Canada and Japan, called on Iran to "provide accelerated cooperation" with agency efforts to clear up questions about Tehran's nuclear program.
It also urged Iran to "ensure there are no further failures" in reporting obligations and called on it to "suspend all further uranium enrichment-related activities, including the further introduction of nuclear material" into a facility where UN nuclear agency inspectors found traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium.
The US and other Western countries accuse Iran of working on a secret nuclear weapons program. They had been pushing for a resolution finding Iran in noncompliance, but gave up because of lack of support among board members.
Chief US delegate Kenneth Brill said the threat by Iran to cut or end cooperation with the IAEA only "suggests they have something to hide that they do not want to come to light."
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