Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said late on Tuesday that Tehran was reviewing the option of decreasing cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after it issued a resolution critical of Iran last week.
Speaking in a live TV interview, Ahmadinejad criticized Russia’s support for agency’s resolution, calling it a mistake: “Friendly relations with the agency are over. We will cooperate as much as they offer us compromises. We are reviewing this.”
The sharply worded IAEA resolution on Friday demanded Iran halt all uranium enrichment and stop construction of a nuclear facility near the Iranian city of Qom. Iran responded by saying it would build even more such facilities.
Tehran insists it has a right to enrich uranium to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. The UNs has demanded Iran freeze enrichment, because the process can also be used to develop a warhead. Russia, which has cooperated with Iran in the past to develop its nuclear program, supported the resolution, earning it Ahmadinejad’s censure.
“Russia made a mistake. It has no correct analysis about current situation of the world,” he said, maintaining that Britain and Israel had swayed the opinion of the UN body because of their animosity toward Iran.
The president’s threats follow up those made by parliament speaker Ali Larijani last week to cut ties with the IAEA. Any reduction of UN inspections would immediately raise tensions with the rest of the world even further, yet Ahmadinejad appeared to be suggesting just that saying that under international law, “we can deny [inspectors’] access to domestic technology.”
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