Iran backed away Monday from following North Korea's lead to cut off the outside world from scrutinizing its nuclear program, but also accused US officials of strong-arming other nations into setting a deadline to bare its atomic secrets.
In recent weeks, Iran had suggested it might sever its ties with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if pressed too hard to increase access to its nuclear programs.
Those threats increased after the IAEA's board of governors passed a US-backed resolution Friday, setting an October deadline for Iran to essentially disprove it is running a covert nuclear weapons program. The board will decide in November on whether Iran has complied.
If it rules Tehran in violation of the treaty banning the spread of nuclear weapons, it will ask the UN Security Council to get involved.
Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh accused "partisan politics in the United States" of being behind the "heavy-handed" resolution accepted by the board, but he said his country remains committed to preventing the proliferation of nuclear arms.
"Our cooperation with the agency ... shall continue as before," Aghazadeh told the IAEA's general assembly. He also said Iran would start "negotiations with the agency about the additional protocol," that would allow the IAEA thorough and unfettered inspections of all of its nuclear activities.
During negotiations that led to passage of a resolution setting next month's deadline, Iran had suggested it would scrap plans to accept that protocol.
Although Aghazadeh's statements eased immediate concerns that Iran would cut ties with the agency and draw the curtain on its nuclear program, the Iranian vice president suggested his country still could take hard line. He said a final response was still being discussed by his government.
"We are studying the resolution carefully and will respond to it officially in a few days," he told delegates to the 135-nation conference.
US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, heading Washington's delegation, welcomed Iran's decision -- at least for now.
"I hope it represents a decision to fully comply" with the resolution, he said, describing Iran's statement as a "more hopeful comment" than its previous threats.
The onus was on Iran to prove the world wrong, he suggested, because "all of the pattern of action and conduct we've seen is totally understandable" only in the context of a weapons program.
If unchecked, Iran could go the way of North Korea, which used its IAEA membership to gain access to technology, only to quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and declare it was making atomic arms, he said.
"One cannot let that precedent be repeated," Abraham said.
The agency, the nuclear watchdog of the UN, seeks to ensure compliance with the treaty, which aims to ban the spread of nuclear weapons. It monitors the status of nuclear materials in dozens of countries and promotes the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
Other delegation heads and IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran to heed the resolution and called on North Korea to scrap its existing arms program.
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