Iran: Retaliation Boycott List Drawn Up

Adnkronos International:

A list of countries to be boycotted by Tehran, should they vote against it at an upcoming meeting of the UN's nuclear watchdog, has been circulating on Iranian websites linked to radical groups close to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to the list, after South Korea, the Czech Republic and Britain, the embargo on commercial imports would be directed at Canada, Italy and France should they approve a new 'anti-Iranian' motion at the International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting on 24 November. Iran has dismissed fresh US allegations about its atomic ambitions as an attempt to 'poison' the board meeting.

According to the radical Iranian sites, Germany and Sweden will receive the same treatment but only if the Iranian dossier is referred to the UN Security Council. READ MORE

Sources close to the Tehran government argue that the recent protest rally in Rome, against Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel should be "wiped off the map", have meant Italy, previously grouped with Germany and Sweden, has been shifted up the list for reatliatory measures.

US officials have meanwhile said new evidence suggests Iran has made significant progress in its 'secret pursuit' of nuclear weapons, and that this strengthened the case for more pressure on Teheran to end the programme. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi rejected the allegations as an attempt to ratchet up pressure on Teheran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency board meets in Vienna on 24 November to decide whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that senior American intelligence officials informed the IAEA in July about the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer. One US official said the data was not definitive, but "strongly suggestive that Iran had made significant advancement toward weaponization."

Sources close to the IAEA confirmed that CIA officials had made a presentation at the agency's Vienna headquarters in July, but said the evidence was not clear.