Iran resumes uranium enrichment, ends UN checks

TEHERAN - A defiant Iran on Sunday ended snap UN checks of its nuclear sites and said it was resuming uranium enrichment, a day after being reported to the Security Council over suspicions it is building nuclear weapons.

Diplomats warned the response could heighten the dispute over the nuclear ambitions of the world’s fourth biggest oil exporter. Teheran insists it needs nuclear technology only to generate electricity.

“Iran has stopped all voluntary measures that it undertook in the past two and a half to three years,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. “We have no commitment to the Additional Protocol any more.”

“We had two clear options. One was to decide to abandon our nuclear rights, the other to preserve our rights. We chose resistance,” Mottaki added.

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