TEHRAN (AP):
IRAN YESTERDAY threatened to begin large-scale uranium enrichment if the United Nations' nuclear watchdog formally refers it to the Security Council for possible sanctions when it meets today.
Vowing never to stop researching enrichment, Iran offered what it called a "a final proposal" to agree on a timetable for increasing its production of the substance - which can power a plant but also fuel an atom bomb.
The country's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, defended his country's nuclear programme as a matter of national sovereignty.
"If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the U.N. Security Council, (large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed," Larijani told a news conference. "If they (the U.S. and its allies) want to use force, we will pursue our own path."
The International Atomic Energy Agency will meet in Vienna, Austria, today to discuss Iran's nuclear programme and decide whether to refer the issue to the Security Council, which has the power to impose economic and political sanctions on the Islamic republic.
Iran only has an experimental nuclear research programme and would need months to begin any large-scale enrichment.
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This week, Iran, Russia and the Europeans explored plans that essentially would allow Iran small-scale enrichment after reimposing a freeze for an undefined period to rebuild international trust. But talks broke up without any agreement.
Iran has insisted it will not give up its nuclear programme, which it says is for peaceful energy purposes and is its right under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
But United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton yesterday told an influential pro-Israel lobbying group of the urgent need to confront Iran's "clear and unrelenting drive" for a nuclear weapons programme.
Bolton, speaking before a crowd of 4,500 gathered for an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, said that a failure by the Security Council to address Iran would "do lasting damage to the credibility of the council."
"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve," he added.
