Iran standing firm against language in nuclear nonproliferation document

Amid closed-door negotiations aimed at ending the impasse, France on Tuesday criticized Iran for its defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms, and urged it to "comply with its international obligations."

The two-week conference, which began Monday, is the first of three sessions to prepare for a full review of the treaty in 2010, and to come up with specific ideas on how to reinforce the pact.

Iran opposed wording in the meeting's agenda that mentions the "need for full compliance with the treaty." The agenda must be adopted by consensus before delegates can move on to more substantive issues.

If Iran digs in its heels, it could force the meeting to adjourn to a later date. Alternatively, delegates could move on to specific agenda items not being contested by Tehran, giving the meeting time to reach a compromise.

Tehran remained unbowed.

"We cannot go along with this kind of agenda," Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian delegate to the conference, told The Associated Press, complaining that the agenda text "highlights a particular position" over other issues crucial to strengthening the treaty.

Reflecting the importance of the issue for the Islamic republic, the government was dispatching a senior official from Tehran to argue Iran's position Wednesday, diplomats at the meeting told the AP.

A senior diplomat from a nonaligned nation, which usually supports Iran in showdowns with the United States and its allies over its nuclear program, said Tuesday that even nonaligned countries were puzzled by Iran's move. Another diplomat said Cuba, Egypt and South Africa — all traditional Iranian allies — were urging Tehran to modify its stance.

Several diplomats expressed surprise at Iran's opposition to the wording, noting it has always maintained its nuclear activities — including a developing program to enrich uranium that has led to U.N. sanctions — are in compliance with the treaty.

But another diplomat familiar with the issue said Iran was worried about being bullied and considered the text "an additional provocation." He said Iran's assertiveness also could reflect its belief that it was seeing signs of compromise from the West on its refusal to totally freeze enrichment.

All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

In comments to the meeting, Soltanieh took aim at the United States and other nuclear weapons states, describing "their thousands of nuclear weapons ... and their possible use as the most serious threat to the very existence of humankind."

The United States seeks "to rationalize the development and stockpiling of a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons and their use in conventional conflicts," he said. That, "the continued weaponization of outer space, as well as the reliance on the nuclear weapon ... as a key element in the national security strategy of certain nuclear weapons states are more than ever worrisome," Soltanieh added.

Again rejecting a U.N. Security Council demand that Tehran stop work on its uranium enrichment program, Soltanieh said his country "will not stand still in the face of intimidation and threats, and will never give up its inalienable rights."

The NPT treaty, reviewed every five years, calls on nations to pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons, in exchange for a commitment by five nuclear powers — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — to move toward nuclear disarmament. India and Pakistan, which are known nuclear weapons states, remain outside the treaty, as does Israel, which is considered to have such arms, though it has not acknowledged it.

Both Iran and North Korea have tested the 37-year-old treaty's effectiveness. North Korea pulled out in early 2003 and went on to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran argues it has a right to pursue uranium enrichment under the treaty despite international fears it is using the process to make nuclear weapons — and the weight of U.N. sanctions imposed because of its refusal to freeze its program.

Chief French delegate Jean-Francois Dobelle, in a statement to the meeting, urged Iran "to comply with its international obligations," adding that any revision of the treaty "should deal with and respond to the challenge raised by the continuation of the Iranian nuclear program."

Alluding to Iran — which the West accuses of hiding behind the nonproliferation treaty to develop a weapons program — Dobelle said: "It is not acceptable for a small number of states ... to breach their obligations, while at the same time claiming the benefit of their rights."

Officials from some 130 of the treaty's 189 signatory countries are attending the conference, excluding North Korea. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/