Iran threatens to pull out of NPT

Iran had already stopped snap IAEA inspections, saying its 2003 agreement was being implemented voluntarily and had not been ratified by parliament and the Guardian Council, a powerful oversight body dominated by Islamic hardliners. The protocol allows unfettered and unannounced IAEA inspections to ensure overall compliance with the NPT.

Furthermore, the letter said, the lawmakers would order a “review of Article 10 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the section of the agreement that outlines procedures for withdrawal. Article 10 allows signatories to pull out of the treaty if they decide that extraordinary events have jeopardised their own supreme interests. A nation wanting to withdraw must give fellow treaty signers and the UN three months notice and detail events leading up to the decision. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 on that basis.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said Iran would reconsider its membership in the NPT if pressure continues. “If a signature on an international treaty causes the rights of a nation to be violated, that nation will reconsider its decision and that treaty will be invalid,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad.

“If they (the US and its allies) want to make incorrect decisions against Iran and issue statements and resolutions, they have to know that the Iranian nation will smash their illegitimate resolutions against a wall,” he said. Ahmadinejad called threats of UN sanctions “meaningless,” saying “they don’t give us anything and yet they want to impose sanctions on us. We have been meeting our needs for the past 27 years and we will meet our requirements ourselves in the future too,” in reference to US sanctions imposed on Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. “We will not sacrifice the interests of the Iranian nation for resolutions with excessive demands,” he said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said again there was nothing the international community could do to prompt Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, declaring that “intervention by the Security Council in this issue is completely illegal”. Asefi also said Iran’s opponents were driven by “political motivations”.

Senator says US should consider direct talks

Washington: Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday said the US should consider direct nuclear talks with Iran. McCain added, however, that “there has to be some kind of glimmer of hope or optimism before we sit down and give them that kind of legitimacy”. McCain, a possible presidential contender in 2008, told CBS’ Face the Nation that Iran must renounce its call for the extinction of Israel.