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U.N. sets Iran nuclear deadline
(CNN) -- The U.N.'s atomic watchdog has set a deadline of October 31 for Iran to prove it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran walked out of Friday's meeting in Vienna of the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Authority in response to the passing of the resolution. Tehran has repeatedly warned it will not accept any deadline carrying the possibility of Security Council involvement and even sanctions, implying that such a decision would aggravate nuclear tensions. The Iranian delegation circulated a statement to reporters at IAEA headquarters in Vienna that said the resolution could "kill an otherwise constructive process." "We will have no choice, but to have a deep review of our existing level and extent of engagement with the agency," the Iranian statement said. Hours before the resolution passed, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -- currently the head of the Expediency Council, the highest arbiter in the government -- called the Vienna meeting "unfair," "unjust" and "not human." "We are united on this," he said at a Friday prayer meeting in Tehran. "There is no difference of opinion." In Vienna, the 35-nation member IAEA governing board unanimously approved the resolution, which sets an October 31 deadline for compliance, calls on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment development and urges the country to ratify a protocol that would give IAEA inspectors more access to Iranian sites. IAEA inspectors have conducted searches in Iran over the last six months, but have questions about its nuclear program. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is solely for electricity. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said she hopes inspectors will soon be allowed to return. In an interview with CNN, she said the governing board has "a number of questions, a number of outstanding issues on very specific technical matters -- but significant ones -- that need to be cleared up." "What the IAEA inspectors need is accelerated cooperation, full transparency on the part of Iran, so that we can clear up these questions in a matter of weeks, and not months and months," she said. "We would hope that this resolution doesn't have an effect of turning the Iranians away from cooperation." And if Iran does not cooperate? "It certainly increases the drama," said Fleming. The resolution did not spell out consequences for non-compliance, but diplomats said the U.N. Security Council could take up the matter if the next IAEA board meeting in November found Tehran to still be uncooperative. Of particular concern is a nuclear enrichment facility in the town of Natanz, where inspectors reported finding particles that contained a higher percentage of enriched uranium than is needed for the civilian power program Iran says the plant will serve. Iranian officials told the agency those traces came from equipment imported from another country. The United States has accused Iran of secretly developing a nuclear weapons program. Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at producing 6,000 megawatts of electricity, an amount they said would be needed in the country in 20 years time. President Bush has called Iran, North Korea and Iraq under the former regime of Saddam Hussein an "axis of evil."
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