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Iran says no case for referring it to UN Council | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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TEHRAN (Reuters) -Iran said on Sunday there was not enough evidence that its nuclear program was designed to produce anything other than energy for it to be sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday any referral to New York, at a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna on Thursday, would be a political maneuver against the Islamic Republic.

&#34There is no legal or logical reason for Iran”s case to be referred. But if something does happen in the next few days based on political motives that is a different matter,&#34 he told reporters.

Iran is facing referral after failing to convince the world that its scientists are working on power stations rather than nuclear weapons.

The suspicions are based on Iran”s failure to disclose key nuclear infrastructure and revelations that it has been working on some nuclear systems primarily associated with military programs.

European Union diplomats have been seeking to head off a showdown in New York by encouraging Iran to allow Russia to produce nuclear fuel on its behalf when it reaches the most critical stage — uranium enrichment — as part of a joint venture.

They argue this could guarantee the fuel was not being enriched to weapons-grade.

Asefi said Iran would consider a suggestion that another country conduct the fuel work.

&#34If we receive a proposal on this, we can study it. But we prefer to do it in Iran and not in any other country,&#34 he said.

Doubts about Iran”s motives have been stoked further by Tehran”s delivery of a black-market document to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which one diplomat called a &#34cookbook&#34 for an atom bomb.

Asefi said this was an attempt to distract from the positive comments in the report of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei that will be delivered at the Vienna meeting.

&#34When the U.S. and their allies found out ElBaradei”s report did not have negative points, they made a fuss about this baseless matter,&#34 he said.

Iran said the document came to it unsolicited from people linked to the clandestine arms bazaar set up by the father of Pakistan”s nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan.