Iran will never be prepared to dismantle its nuclear programme entirely but remains committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty , its chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency said in Beijing on Wednesday.In meetings in Beijing, Chinese officials expressed their opposition to any referral of the Iranian nuclear issue to the UN Security Council, where China is a permanent, veto-wielding member, Hossein Mousavian said. Such a Chinese stand could be a blow to US efforts to report Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanction over its claims that Tehran used its nuclear power programme as a front to build a bomb. ‘‘Definitely, Iran will never be prepared for dismantling. This is out of the question and out of negotiation,’’ Mousavian told a news conference. On Monday, Iran said it had kept a promise it made to the European Union last week by freezing its entire uranium enrichment programme. But diplomats said on Wednesday Iran has asked to be allowed to exclude some research and development work useable in nuclear bomb-making from the freeze , but EU negotiators rejected the request. The Iranians asked to be allowed to continue conducting research and development with centrifuges during the freeze.France, Britain and Germany, which spearheaded the EU offer of incentives if Iran suspended its uranium enrichment programme, circulated a draft resolution that UN diplomats said was unacceptable to both Washington and Tehran. The draft is to be submitted to the board of governors of the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday.In Tehran, the Islamic Republic’s Basij militia staged a show of strength. The voluntary organisation, which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently dubbed as “Iran’s atomic bomb”, staged a military parade south of the capital and vowed to defend their country against any foreign threat.
