Iran Rejects an Ultimatum From Europe

The New York Times:

By NAZILA FATHI

Published: September 5, 2005

TEHRAN, Sept. 4 - Iran on Sunday rejected a call by Europe to halt its nuclear program in two weeks or face possible Security Council penalties, and said it would not give in to what it called bullying.

The head of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, Ali Larijani, who is also the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told state television that the increasing pressure on Tehran to freeze its program to make nuclear fuel amounted to "bullying" and warned that taking Tehran before the Security Council would be a mistake.

Britain, Germany and France, which represent Europe in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, urged Iran on Saturday to suspend its activities at a nuclear site near Isfahan before Sept. 19, when the United Nations nuclear agency's board of governors will meet.

Iran resumed conversion activities at the site on Aug. 8 to protest a proposal by the three European countries, which asked Iran to stop making nuclear fuel. The technology could provide Iran with the ability to make nuclear bombs.

Tehran has been under mounting pressure since Friday when Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of International Atomic Energy Agency, submitted a report in which he outlined several concerns, including Iran's failure to cooperate with the agency over its nuclear material after more than two years of work with the agency.

In separate comments, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamidreza Assefi, said Sunday that Dr. ElBaradei's report lacked "coherence and integrity."

"The time when they could get us to hold back from our rights by threatening us is over," Mr. Assefi said at his weekly news conference.

Iran's new conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is expected to address a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month, has said he will announce his proposal then to end the deadlock over Iran's nuclear program.