Iran: US may feel “pain” if Security Council acts

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran said on Wednesday the United States
could feel “harm and pain” if the U.N. Security Council took up
the issue of Tehran’s nuclear research and Tehran vowed to
pursue the program come what may.

“The United States may have the power to cause harm and
pain but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the
United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll,”
it said in a statement obtained by Reuters on the sidelines of
a U.N. nuclear watchdog board meeting in Vienna.

Iran has accused Washington of helping to engineer an
International Atomic Energy Agency board vote a month ago to
report Tehran’s atomic project to the Security Council.

Iran denies Western suspicions it is secretly trying to
build atomic bombs, saying it seeks only nuclear-generated
electricity.

“In any case, we will continue to exercise our research and
development activities based on our right,” the statement said.

“There are two options before us. Either to compromise and
cooperate or go for confrontation. We hope and spare no effort
that the first option will be realized,” it added, alluding to
now stalled diplomacy to resolve the crisis.

An Iranian collision course with the council looked more
likely after Tehran brushed aside what EU diplomats said was a
Russian offer to let it do some atomic research if it refrained
from enriching uranium on an industrial scale for 7-9 years.

The United States and its key European Union allies
Britain, France and Germany also rebuffed the idea because they
said it would not have prevented Iran perfecting bomb
technology via enrichment research.