Russia, China, Britain, France, the United States, and Germany proposed a set of incentives to Iran in a bid to persuade the country to give up uranium enrichment, which many countries believe is part of a covert weapons program, and warned in a July 31 UN resolution that Iran faces sanctions if it fails to suspend enrichment by August 31. But Tehran says it needs the nuclear program for civilian ends.
"We are thinking over response measures if the UN Security Council adopts a resolution against Iran. If it is tough, a reaction will follow," said Hassan Rowhani, Iran's former chief negotiator and representative of the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran's Security Council. "Perhaps, limiting cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will be one of our responses."
The EU-3 - Britain, France and Germany - proposed last week a set of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which includes banning sales of missile and nuclear technologies to the country, freezing its military bank accounts, and imposing visa restrictions for officials linked to the nuclear industry.
But Kazem Jalali, rapporteur of Iran's parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Wednesday his country is developing new networks of centrifuges to enrich uranium. "Iran is continuing to develop new cascades of centrifuges. We need enough centrifuges to meet our demands for nuclear fuel."
He said the main objective for Iran is to attain production levels of uranium enrichment.
Iran announced last week that it has launched a second network of centrifuges to enrich uranium in compliance with the non-proliferation treaty and under its nuclear research program.
Russia and China, both of which hold a veto on the Security Council as well as major business interests in Iran, have consistently opposed any punitive measures against Tehran to avoid isolating the country, and have pushed for diplomatic moves to induce Iran to comply with international demands.
