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Iran's parliament mulls barring UN inspectors

Iran's parliament on Sunday approved the outline of a bill that would bar UN inspectors from its nuclear sites if the agency referred Iran's case to the UN Security Council for possible punitive measures.

The board of governors of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to review Iran's case on Thursday. The atomic agency passed a resolution in September and called on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities before the meeting.

The bill needs the approval of the Guardian Council, which has final say over all government actions, to become law. But the approval on Sunday, by 183 of the 197 lawmakers present, suggests that the parliament backs the government's tougher stance on its nuclear program.

"By approving this bill, we are sending a message to the atomic agency," said Aladdin Boroujerdi, who is the head of parliament's Commission for Foreign Policy and National Security, urging the agency not to act against Iran.

"Otherwise, we require the government to suspend all its voluntary measures," he said.

Boroujerdi was referring to Iran allowing inspection of its nuclear sites.

Iran defied an agreement with Britain, France and Germany in August and resumed activities at a nuclear site near Isfahan. It further complicated diplomacy last week after it fed a new batch of uranium into the plant.

The work includes converting mined uranium, or yellowcake, into a gas known as uranium tetrafluoride, or UF4, a step before enrichment.

In his report on Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, praised Iran's "transparency and indispensable" cooperation but urged it to suspend enrichment-related activities and to allow inspectors to visit Lavizan-Shian, a military site near Tehran.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that Iran would allow the inspectors to visit that site only if they could provide "concrete proof" of activity related to weapons.
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