TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran reacted with defiance to a tough resolution from the UN's atomic watchdog, rejecting calls to halt sensitive nuclear activities and threatening to block tough inspections if the issue was referred to the Security Council.
"Iran will not accept any obligations concerning the suspension of enrichment," Iran's top nuclear official Hassan Rowhani said Sunday at a press conference after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called for a halt to uranium enrichment-related activities.
Although Rowhani appeared to reject Saturday's resolution, he did say Iran would only accept a suspension "through negotiations" and if it was a "voluntary decision".
But he also raised the tone of the stand-off by warning the Islamic republic would halt its application of a key safeguards treaty if the nuclear dossier was referred to the Security Council, as sought by the United States.
"We are committed to the NPT ... and will continue to voluntarily apply the additional protocol. But we will stop applying the additional protocol if the case is sent to the Security Council," Rowhani warned.
Iran signed the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) last December, but parliament has yet to ratify it. The text obliges Iran to accept tougher IAEA inspections, including short-notice visits to even undeclared facilities.
Rowhani, a mid-ranking cleric and head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, threatened that Iran's hardline parliament could also push for a pull-out from the NPT if the Security Council moved to sanction the country.
The United States in particular accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons but Tehran says it merely wants to produce fuel to generate energy.
Iran suspended enrichment in October 2003 as a confidence-building measure but has continued support activities such as building the centrifuges that refine the uranium.
It has also caused alarm by saying that it would be carrying out the first stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, making the uranium gas that is the feed for centrifuges. The resolution passed Saturday called on Iran to halt such work.
Fuel cycle work is permitted under the NPT, but Iran has been under pressure to suspend and even halt such work because of its dual-use nature. The process of enriching uranium can be carried out to produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or the core of a nuclear bomb.
Rowhani said fuel cycle work at a Uranium Conversion Facility in the central city of Isfahan was going ahead -- as was the construction of a heavy water reactor at Arak and enrichment preparations at Natanz.
"The conversion has started, it is a one-month test that started two or three weeks ago," he said. "At Arak, the heavy water reactor is in its final stage to be completed. At Natanz we are making the final step towards enrichment."
"We have reached the stage where we can produce nuclear fuel ... People should know that the suspension is not a halt to our activities. In one year we have obtained everything we wanted," said Rowhani.
"We refuse to stop all enrichment-related activities," he repeated, again rejecting a definitive halt to work on the fuel cycle.
Rowhani also accused Europe's "big three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- of breaking an accord on Iran's cooperation with the IAEA that was struck here in October 2003.
"The three Europeans have violated the terms of the accord regarding enrichment because the suspension of enrichment was voluntary," he said, without saying if Tehran had abandoned the deal.
It was the three European nations which were behind the tough resolution passed at the IAEA on Saturday.
"We have difficult days ahead of us," Rowhani commented.
Meanwhile the Iranian parliament also adopted a harsh tone against the IAEA, saying it would not ratify the additional protocol even though the IAEA resolution called on it to do so and describing the IAEA move as "illegal".
"The continued defiance of principles by the IAEA's board of governors leaves no room for us to ratify the additional protocol, and will lead us to question what is the point for the nation to leave its doors open for IAEA inspectors," said a statement read out in parliament.
"We the deputies urge the government to seriously follow up with the completion of the fuel cycle programme for nuclear plants and pay no heed to resolutions," said the statement, carried live on state radio.
The Islamic regime insists its nuclear programme is strictly aimed at generating electricity.