Iran warns against UN referral

Iran has warned that it would resume efforts to enrich uranium on an industrial scale if its case was reported to the United nations' Security Council.

"If we are referred to the Security Council, the government is obliged by the Majlis (Iran's Parliament) to lift all voluntary measures including the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty," Iran's top nuclear official Ali Larijani was quoted as saying in London's Financial Times Monday.

Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, which handles the nuclear issue, said a referral to the United Nations would force Tehran to broaden significantly the scale of such work.

The European Union and US have been pushing to get Iran's case reported to the UN Security Council since Tehran announced it would restart its nuclear research two weeks ago. On Moscow's proposal for a joint venture to enrich uranium on Russian soil for use in Iranian reactors, Larijani said the proposal "had to become complete. Gaps have to be filled. We have to see what potential this idea has for being productive".

"There are two issues to be considered: one is Iran's right to enrichment, and the other is non-diversion (of nuclear material to weapons)," he said. "Any solution should be consistent with these two considerations. The scale, extent and timing can all be discussed," he added.