LOC09:44
06:44 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (KUNA) -- Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mohammad
Khazaee late Friday complained to the world organisation that Israel has the
intention to militarily attack his country's "peaceful" nuclear facilities,
and vowed to respond in kind if that happens.
In identical letters to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council
President Agshin Mehdiyev of Azerbaijan, Khazaee said Israeli Defense Minister
Ehud Barak, "unwarrantedly and under erroneous and false presumptions on
Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," threatened the use of force against Iran.
He said the threat, carried by international media earlier this week,
signaled the "likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities,"
and that "a 'nuclear Iran is intolerable and no options should be taken off
the table'."
Khazaee said Iran expresses its "deep concern over, and strong condemnation
of such a provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible" statement by Barak and
other Israeli officials who have frequently threatened Iran with a military
strike.
Stressing that Iran is a "leading nation in rejecting and opposing all
kinds of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons," Khazaee said
his Government has "no intention to initiate any attack against other nations."
"Nonetheless," he added, "Iran would not hesitate to act in self-defense to
respond to any attack against the Iranian nation and to take appropriate
defensive measures to protect itself."
He found it "ironic that such inflammatory remarks and baseless allegations
against Iran's peaceful nuclear program is uttered by officials of a regime
that has an unparalleled record of crimes and atrocities amounting to crimes
against humanity and a clandestine and unlawful possession of nuclear weapons"
which constitute the "unique threat to regional as well as international peace
and security."
Ban met separately with Barak and Khazaee earlier this week.
The Iranian letter coincides with the circulation of a quarterly report by
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which announced on Friday that
its inspectors found in one of Iran's facilities traces of uranium enriched up
to 27 percent, higher than the previously reported level of 20 percent.
The IAEA announcement, which came two days after Iranian and P5+1
representatives met in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday to discuss Teheran's
nuclear programme, is expected to complicate their talks when they meet again
on June 18-19 in Moscow, Russia. (end)
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