“Iran has vowed that it would refuse to comply with any UN Security Council demand to halt its disputed nuclear programme and warned the crisis was leading the two sides towards a “confrontation”.
Asked how Iran would respond if the Council adopted a tough resolution drafted by Britain and France, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday that Iran “will certainly reject it and cannot carry it out.”Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also signalled Iran could quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if the pressure mounted.
“If the signature of a treaty threatens the rights of a nation, it has no validity for that nation,” the ISNA news agency quoted him as telling a gathering of members of Iran’s Basij militia.
Iranian leaders have already signalled Iran could quit the NPT — the cornerstone of the global effort against the spread of nuclear weapons — if the country comes under more pressure to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.” [Read more]