Tehran hiding military goal: French FM

PARIS, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy accused Tehran Thursday of developing a secret nuclear weapons program.

"No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program," Douste-Blazy said in an interview on France 2 TV, "so it is a clandestine nuclear program."

Since Tehran has refused to listen to the international community to suspend its nuclear activities, Douste-Blazy added, it was now up to the United Nations Security Council to try to do so.

Douste-Blazy's statements amount to the clearest French accusation to date that Iran's nuclear program has a military goal.

Iran was quick to rebut the French Minister's claims.

"We don't want to have the bomb, that's why we accepted the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," Ali Larijani, Iran's head nuclear negotiator, told France Inter radio from Tehran shortly after Douste-Blazy's interview.

France, Britain and Germany have worked closely with the United States in recent months to persuade Tehran to suspend its nuclear activities.

With those efforts going nowhere, members of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted earlier this month to take the matter to the Security Council.

On Tuesday the IAEA confirmed Iran had resumed its nuclear enrichment activities, The Washington Post reported.