Iran says it still stands by nuclear arms treaty

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear arms control treaty Sunday and urged a peaceful solution to the international crisis over concerns it is seeking to develop atomic weapons, a day after its hard-line president issued a veiled threat to withdraw from the pact.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, began a mission to Iran to learn just what controls remain on nuclear sites and equipment after Tehran ended all but minimum cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

In Vienna, Austria, a diplomat told the Associated Press on Saturday that some International Atomic Energy Agency seals and cameras had been removed from Iranian nuclear sites within the last few days, suggesting that happened without IAEA supervision. But others familiar with the probe said they doubted the Iranians would make such a move before the arrival of the inspectors, which occurred over the weekend.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran would cooperate with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the safeguards it provides.

“We are still committed to the provisions of the NPT. But we can’t accept its use as a (political) instrument,” Asefi said at a weekly news conference.

On Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected U.S. and European pressure to resume a freeze on the country’s nuclear program and hinted that Iran might withdraw from the treaty.

“The nuclear policy of the Islamic Republic so far has been peaceful. Until now, we have worked inside the agency (IAEA) and the NPT regulations,” he said in a speech before tens of thousands of Iranians marking the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

“If we see you want to violate the right of the Iranian people by using those regulations (against us), you should know that the Iranian people will revise its policies,” he said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that such a move by Iran “would only deepen their own isolation,” citing a recent IAEA decision to report the country to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions, after months of failed talks between the Iranians and European negotiators.

Tehran repeatedly has stressed the nuclear arms control treaty allows it to pursue a nuclear program for peaceful purposes, and it has said it will never give up the right to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel. The U.S. and its European allies believe Iran is seeking to develop atomic weapons.