Iran to boycott Middle East meeting on nuclear weapons

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran will not attend a rare meeting for Middle East countries next week to discuss efforts to free the world of nuclear weapons, an Iranian official said, signaling worsening ties between the UN atomic agency and Iran, Reuters reports.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, made the announcement after the 35-nation governing board of the IAEA adopted a resolution on Friday, November 18, rebuking Tehran over its nuclear program.

Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.

Soltanieh lashed out at IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, who convened the Nov 21-22 talks in Vienna for countries in the Middle East and other agency members, as "not professional" and said he did not believe the meeting would be successful.

Amano issued a report last week which angered Iran by saying the Islamic state appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon and that secret research may continue.

Soltanieh said Amano had "not even talked about Israeli nuclear capabilities," referring to the Jewish state's assumed atomic arsenal.

"How can we positively respond to the invitation of Mr Amano?," he told reporters. "While we are a strong proponent of a nuclear weapons-free zone we don't think that the meeting ... will be fruitful and successful. Therefore I must say we will not participate."