By DPA
New York : The Iranian government has asked the UN Security Council to drop the “unlawful” targeting of its nuclear programmes, citing recent US intelligence that confirmed Iran had shut down its nuclear weapons activities in 2003.
Tehran said in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Thursday that the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should have authority over Iran’s nuclear programmes and “perform its functions free from any pressure”.
“The time has come for the Security Council to put an end to its unlawful consideration of Iran’s nuclear issue and to send the dossier back to its technical and competent forum, namely the IAEA,” Iranian UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in the letter.
“Unquestionably, any further involvement by the Security Council in this regard, will have no justification, and will only complicate the situation and undermine the credibility and authority of the IAEA,” the letter said.
It stated Iran neither had nuclear weapon programmes in the past nor at present.
In its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released earlier this month, the US revealed that Iran had shut down its nuclear weapon operations in 2003. But President George W. Bush and other US officials warned that Iran remains a nuclear threat because of the dual use of some civilian nuclear activities.
Iran now has advanced techniques in uranium conversion, which can be used for military programmes.
Iran took the opportunity of the NIE report to say that the 15-nation council in New York had no reason to seize on the nuclear issue and impose sanctions on the country.
“The NIE report, which has reversed some of its own previous conclusions made in 2005 against Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme, attests to the fact that the very pretexts by which Iran’s nuclear programme was referred to the Security Council have been, from the outset, flawed and unfounded,” the letter said.
It accused the US of “distorting intelligence to pursue its politically motivated ends with regard to Iran’s nuclear peaceful programme”.
The Security Council began discussion of sanctions against Iran in 2005 and since then had imposed targeted measures against some Iranian civilian and military officials, curbing their travels abroad and freezing their assets.
Washington has unilaterally imposed more severe sanctions against Iran, focusing on Iranian banks and enterprises related to nuclear programmes.