Iran's representative to the IAEA, Ali-Akbar Soltaniyeh, has expressed dissatisfaction with the IAEA referral resolution of Iran to the U.N. Security Council In a statement on Sunday to the Iranian News Agency "IRNA" Soltaniyeh said that the resolution passed Saturday by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reporting Iran to the UN Security Council was the result of political pressure imposed by the United States and ignored all positive cooperation of Iran with the agency. "(Nuclear) research is legal under all rules and regulations of the IAEA or NPT or even under the Additional Protocol but the issue has been politicized since Iran launched nuclear research." The Iranian representative regretted the fact that the environment had already been prepared for "Iran's nuclear case to be reported to the UN Security Council" obviously because of the US pressure. "The representative of the Zionist regime even opposed the move of certain countries, which had concerns over the regime's burgeoning nuclear arsenal, to have a clause calling for a "nuclear-free Middle East" incorporated into the resolution, he pointed out. "Some countries believed the IAEA was the proper venue for resolving Iran's nuclear case while others believed negotiations still had the chance of removing ambiguities," Soltaniyeh said. "The Government of Iran continues to protest over the discrimination and double standards applied by certain countries and insists that the resolution has no legal basis," he added.
