Tehran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Iran will cease cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency if the U.N. Security Council slaps sanctions on the country.| Will we notice a difference? |
On Tuesday, Larijani, speaking to an international conference on Iran's energy program, said flatly that if the Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran, the country would suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees compliance with the nonproliferation treaty.
The Western countries on the IAEA board "have to understand they cannot resolve this issue through force," he said.
Iran's former President, Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking at the same conference, claimed that Iran openly launched its nuclear program — which Iran insists is for peaceful energy purposes only — "but the behavior of Western countries forced it to carry out its nuclear program independently, based on local expertise and knowledge without relying on Western countries."