Iran warns IAEA on nuclear cooperation
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it might have to limit its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, criticizing the agency's report which said Tehran's alleged research into nuclear warheads was a matter of serious concern.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a May 26 report, also said Tehran should provide more information on its missile-related work.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tehran believed the U.N. agency could have submitted a better report had it not been for the "continuing pressures of one or two known countries," in a clear reference to Tehran's Western foes.
The United States accuses the Islamic Republic of seeking to develop nuclear arms. Iran denies the charge but its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear work has prompted three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006.
"In regard to this report, we of course had more expectations from the agency," spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference, a day before the IAEA's board of governors begin a June 2-6 meeting in Vienna.
He added: "The trend of cooperation ... should continue in a way that, as Dr Larijani pointed out, the parliament and the Islamic Republic of Iran would not be compelled to review the going trend of the cooperation and adopt new limitations."
He was referring to Iran's new parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who on Wednesday said the current levels of cooperation with the IAEA were in jeopardy if major powers continued to "kick around" Iran's disputed nuclear case.
Hosseini did not elaborate under what circumstances and in what way Iran might limit cooperation with the IAEA.
Iran in 2006 ended voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-proliferation Treaty that allowed for short notice IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites.
The IAEA has been pressing Tehran to provide answers to Western intelligence accusations that it covertly studied how to design atomic bombs. Iran has rejected the intelligence as baseless, forged or irrelevant.
World powers have prepared an enhanced package of economic and other incentives for Iran if it suspends its most sensitive nuclear work, something Tehran has consistently refused to do.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to travel to Tehran soon and submit the package.
Larijani, who quit as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator last year citing differences with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Solana had a good understanding of the conditions in Iran.
"His coming to Iran is a good opportunity for him to conduct negotiations with Iranian officials to reach a comprehensive solution," Larijani said on state television.
(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Hashem Kalantari; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
