BAKU: Iran insists on developing nuclear energy and hopes the United Nations Security Council will not politicise this "essential right," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Thursday.
"The member states of the NPT should enjoy... their right, which is peaceful nuclear technology. We are insisting on that," Mottaki said, referring to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Mottaki called on the international community not to violate "the essential rights of countries".
"We hope that will not happen in the Security Council," he said. Mottaki was attending a regional economic conference of the 10-country Economic Cooperation Organisation taking place in Iran's neighbour Azerbaijan.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due in Baku later on Thursday and was scheduled to meet Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.
A summit of top officials from the 10-country group, which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey, was to take place Friday.
The meeting was being held after Britain and France began circulating a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would legally oblige Iran to comply with UN demands that it freeze uranium enrichment.
Mottaki said Iran was ready to cooperate with the international community provided that its nuclear programme was treated as a "technical issue".
"In such a case, definitely Iran is in a position to continue its full cooperation," he said. "The issue must not be politicised," he said.
