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Football Betting Spread Tuesday, 17th January 2006
Iran Focus

Brussels, Jan. 17 - Belgium and Denmark called on Tuesday for Iran's nuclear file to be sent to the United Nations Security Council because of Tehran's decision to resume nuclear enrichment-related activities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had repeatedly asked Iran to refrain from recommencing work at its uranium enrichment site in Natanz, but the calls fell on deaf ears in Tehran, and after resuming its activities the Islamic Republic vowed that its actions were "irreversible".

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht aligned himself with a statement that had been released by the European Union last week denouncing the Iranian action.

In a statement, De Gucht said that as a member of the Board of Governors of the IAEA Belgium has carefully been following the development of the Iranian nuclear dossier.

"Minister De Gucht regrets that Iran seems unwilling to comply with the Board resolutions calling for full transparency and cooperation with the IAEA and the numerous appeals to remedy the confidence deficit stemming from its past clandestine nuclear activities".

The Belgian Foreign Minister said that since a resolution adopted by the IAEA Board in September 2005 found Iran to be in non-compliance with its safeguards agreement and declared that the Iranian nuclear file gave rise to questions that were within the competence of the UN Security Council and "since Iran continues to challenge the authority of the IAEA and its Board resolutions", he agreed with the rest of the EU that "the time has come for the UN Security Council to become involved and to use all the potential of its diplomacy".

Separately Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen added his voice for Iran's referral to the Security Council.

"[The] time has come to get the UN Security Council involved in this case", Fogh Rasmussen told reporters, the Associated Press reported. "It is important that we put the greatest possible international pressure on Iran".

Denmark, which holds a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, is "co-responsible that maximum pressure is put on Iran", Fogh Rasmussen said at his weekly news conference.

Iran Focus Tehran, Jan. An Iranian medical student was sentenced to two years prison time and 74 lashes by Iran's Revolutionary Court on political charges, run news agency. Reza Ashrafpour, a young man studying dentistry in Iran's University of Medical Sciences had been charged with "acting against national security", "propaganda against the regime", "spreading panic in society", and "insulting the Supreme Leader".

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