THE HAGUE, Sept 8 (AFP) - Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot warned Wednesday that if the UN Security Council were to get involved in the controversy over Iran's nuclear programme it would spell the end of inspections in the Islamic republic.
Bot, whose country currently presides over the European Union, said he was confident that Iran would kick out inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if the country was brought before the Security Council, as the United States is demanding.
"That would spell the end of inspections," he said, speaking during a parliamentary debate on the issue, two days after Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani held high-level talks here.
Bot told legislators that Iran was ready to work with the IAEA and was willing to provide written guarantees that enriched uranium would not be used toward military ends.
He said that Rowhani had assured him as well as Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende that IAEA inspectors could carry out their work in Iran round the clock.
The United States has accused Iran of covertly trying to develop a nuclear bomb and has sought to have the IAEA refer Tehran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
Tehran maintains that it is merely trying to meet increasing domestic energy demands and free up its vast oil and gas reserves for export.
The IAEA's executive board of governors is due to begin meeting on the issue on September 13.