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Iran denies decision to withdraw from NPT

Amid talks that Iran might leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a result of the recent resolution issued by the UN nuclear watchdog against the country, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEO) says the country does not intend to withdraw from the NPT.

Speaking after a Monday press conference with Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, who was on an official visit to the Bushehr nuclear power plant, AEO head Ali Akbar Salehi denied a decision by the Tehran government to leave the NPT.

Earlier in the week six world powers drafted a resolution at the UN nuclear watchdog against Iran’s nuclear work.

The draft, backed by the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China, was presented at the year-end meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation Board of Governors.

The IAEA passed the resolution which called on Iran to stop all construction work at the Fordo site and confirm there are no more nuclear sites that the agency must be aware of.

The resolution was faced with mixed reactions in Tehran with one Majlis lawmaker quoted by IRNA as saying that “the parliament, in its first reaction to this illegal and politically-motivated resolution, can consider withdrawal from the NPT.”

Meanwhile Salehi addressed the issue, explaining that “the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei considers seeking nuclear arms “a sin.”

“If we wanted to obtain nuclear weapons we would leave the [Nuclear] non-Proliferation Treaty,” Salehi told Reuters. “We do not want to leave the NPT.”

Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons through its enrichment work and has called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.

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