Iran on Sunday threatened to walk out of an international atomic treaty, as it continued to insist on its right to conduct sensitive nuclear activities ahead of a key meeting of the UN Security Council.
The foreign ministry also said that a compromise proposal from Russia to end the nuclear stand-off was now "off the agenda" but subsequently clarified its position to say that the plan was still negotiable.
Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is a drive for peaceful energy but is alleged by the United States to be a cover for weapons production, is due to be discussed at the UN Security Council next week amid the looming threat of sanctions. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki threatened that Iran could quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which governs the peaceful use of nuclear energy, if its atomic rights were not acknowledged.
"If we reach a point where the existing mechanisms do not provide for the right of the Iranian people, then the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran would be possibly revised and reconsidered," Mottaki told reporters, in response to a question over whether Iran would consider leaving the NPT.
"At the moment we believe that there is a chance for different sides to continue the negotiations," he added on the sidelines of an international conference on energy and security in Asia.
Meanwhile there was confusion over the future of a Russian compromise proposal under which Iran would conduct its sensitive uranium enrichment activities - the key sticking point - on Russian soil.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters that the suggestion was off the table now that the case was in the hands of the Security Council.
However Asefi later told public television that the Russian compromise proposal on its nuclear programme can still be negotiated, as long as it acknowledges Iran's right to enrich uranium on home soil.
"As for the Russian proposal, if it considers Iran's right to conduct (nuclear) research on its soil, it can be a topic of negotiation, because the right to conduct research in Iran is the Islamic republic's right that we neither want to give up nor will do," he said. Asefi also went on to say that Iran would never comply with any UN Security Council resolution ordering it to suspend uranium enrichment.
When asked what the Islamic republic would do if any UN Security Council resolution ordered it to suspend uranium enrichment, Asefi said: "Never." He did not elaborate. Although Tehran has proposed suspending industrial-scale enrichment, it is refusing to halt enrichment research - but Western powers argue that even this would allow the clerical regime to acquire nuclear weapons know-how.
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