Iran's parliament may consider withdrawing the country from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in response to a resolution by the UN nuclear watchdog censuring Tehran over its nuclear program, a hardline lawmaker said Saturday. Mohammad Karamirad, a senior lawmaker, said parliament may also consider blocking inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran has allowed such inspections so far. The threats come a day after the board of the UN nuclear agency passed a resolution demanding Tehran immediately stop building its newly revealed nuclear facility near Qom and freeze uranium enrichment. Karamirad does not speak for the government but his statements reflect hardline thinking that the government usually pursues. Iranian lawmakers threatened to pull the country out of the nonproliferation treaty in 2006, during another time of increased pressure by the UN over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran backed down, and the government has said in the past that it has no intention of withdrawing from the treaty. “The parliament, in its first reaction to this illegal and politically-motivated resolution, can consider the issue of withdrawing from NPT,” Karamirad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency, referring to the treaty. “The parliament ... (also) can block the entry of IAEA inspectors to the country,” he said. Karamirad, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Iran was determined to continue its nuclear activities. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, also dismissed the IAEA's fresh demands, saying Saturday on state television that Iran will limit its cooperation with the UN agency to its treaty obligations and will not cooperate beyond that. “Our first reaction to this resolution is that they (IAEA) should not expect us to do what we did several times in the past few months when we cooperated beyond our obligations to remove ambiguities,” Soltanieh said. Soltanieh stressed the resolution won't stop Iran from continuing to enrich uranium. He said the country's nuclear activities will not be interrupted by resolutions from the UN nuclear agency's board, the UN Security Council or even the threat of military strikes against the facilities. Friday's resolution – and the resulting vote of the IAEA's 35-nation decision-making board – were significant on several counts.
