28/11/2009 Iran's parliament may consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), an Iranian lawmaker was quoted by the country's official IRNA news agency as saying Saturday.  
 
The threat comes a day after a resolution passed by the board of the UN nuclear agency demanded that Tehran immediately stop building its newly revealed nuclear facility and freeze uranium enrichment.
 
Mohammad Karamirad said Saturday that parliament may also consider blocking inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which it has been allowing routinely so far. Karamirad does not speak for the government.
 
Earlier on Saturday, a senior Iranian cleric said Iran will produce its own fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran if it is not made available by the UN atomic watchdog.
 
Ahmad Khatami, speaking at a Tehran University prayer service to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, also warned world powers that Iran would not be swayed by "bribery" or cowed by threats from its rights to nuclear technology.
 
Uranium enrichment is the process used to make fuel for nuclear power plants, but when extended it can also produce fissile material for an atomic bomb.
 
Western powers have long suspected that Iran, despite its fierce denials, is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
 
Tehran insists it is its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) while Israel, which is believed to be the sole nuclear power in the Middle East with more than 200 nuclear heads, is not a signatory for this treaty.
 
Cleric Khatami deemed the resolution to be "completely political and not technical in nature," but did not discuss the substance of it.
 
Addressing the IAEA, he said "it is your obligation, under the law, to provide fuel for the Tehran reactor. "If you did this, the issue would be closed. If you do not cooperate you should know that the nation ... which achieved its rights to technology will also provide fuel for its reactor. It is legal and in accordance with international safeguards."
 
The IAEA had brokered a deal under which Russia would lead a consortium that would enrich uranium for the Tehran reactor.
 
Iran, however, has rejected the deal, which would have involved it shipping low-enriched uranium abroad and receiving a more highly enriched version in exchange.
 
The IAEA has also rebuffed a counterproposal under which the exchange would take place on Iranian soil.
 
Khatami, who did not specifically address the specifics of the IAEA resolution, said "Islamic Iran has shown to the world over the past 30 years that it will not back down even an inch, whether in regard to its absolute rights or in the face of threats or bribery. He added, without elaborating: "Of course, Iran will have the option to confront you."
 
Hours after the resolution was adopted, the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, called it "theatrical and useless." "We do not deem it necessary to fully carry out (our) commitments to the agency if Iran's basic rights as a member of the (nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty are not met," he said, without elaborating.