By RIA Novosti
Tehran : Tehran will continue cooperation with the UN atomic agency to avoid tougher sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme, a senior Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said.
On Friday, the five permanent UN Security Council members (China, the US, Russia, Britain and France) plus Germany, who are involved in talks to persuade Iran to drop uranium enrichment, delayed a vote on a new set of sanctions against the Islamic Republic until November.
The vote was postponed pending reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
France and the US have urged tougher punishments for Iran, which is suspected of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme. Tehran insists it needs its own nuclear fuel for power generation, and wants to be independent from foreign supplies.
“By continuing cooperation with the IAEA, we seek to avert new sanctions,” spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
Hosseini also accused the Western nations of hampering contacts between the Islamic Republic and the UN watchdog.
“The radical approach being pursued by certain countries with the aim of hampering cooperation between Iran and the IAEA has not yielded dividends to their governments, something evident from the latest session of the six nations,” the diplomat said.
Iran has defied three consecutive UN resolutions against its nuclear programme since last year and has called two previously imposed rounds of sanctions illegal.
However, since early-summer talks between Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, Tehran has allowed two inspections of its 40 MW heavy water nuclear reactor in Arak, potentially able to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Permission came despite Iran’s denial of access to the site following the second set of sanctions in March.
Iran held another series of talks with the UN in August, with ElBaradei confirming that the plutonium issue had been resolved, but urging more efforts from Tehran to prove its nuclear programme is peaceful.