Iran yesterday defied a UN deadline for the Islamic Republic to
suspend its uranium enrichment and vowed to continue its
controversial nuclear program.
Amid the defiance, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
chief Mohamed ElBaradei is due to make a report that is widely
expected to confirm Tehran's refusal to halt enrichment.
Last December, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1737,
imposing sanctions on Iran's nuclear and missile programs. It also
set a deadline, due on Wednesday, for Tehran to suspend its
enrichment activities or face further sanctions.
"We will continue all plans to achieve progress with full power
and strength," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in the city of
Siahkal in northern Gilan Province, the official IRNA news agency
reported.
He said that access to the full nuclear fuel cycle will move
forward the Iranian nation by 50 years, according to the news
agency.
IRNA reported earlier that Ahmadinejad made similar remarks at a
public rally in the town of Amlash, also in Gilan Province, vowing
"Iran will not retreat one iota in its path to nuclear
victory."
The Iranian president said that Iran would continue to walk in
the nuclear path "powerfully and wisely" until it reaches ultimate
success.
"Today, there are those who are against Iran's access to
peaceful nuclear technology and are trying to put obstacles in our
nuclear path in order to prevent us from exercising our rights with
the grace of the God," Ahmadinejad said.
But "their only option is to maintain their friendship and
respect for the Iranian nation," he said.
Ahmadinejad said that those who oppose Iran's peaceful nuclear
program know that if Iran achieves nuclear power, other countries
will also move in this direction.
"And then they can no longer maintain their monopoly," he said.
While stressing its right to push ahead with its nuclear program in
defiance of the UN deadline, Iran has made diplomatic efforts to
affirm its readiness to negotiate over its nuclear issue.
The dispute should be resolved peacefully through a "diplomatic
solution," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told
reporters yesterday in Istanbul at the end of his two-day visit to
Turkey.
Iran is prepared for possible US military attacks over its
nuclear program, but still prefers cooperation on the issue,
Mottaki said, adding that threats would not force Tehran into
making concessions.
In a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoganon
Tuesday, Mottaki reiterated that his country's nuclear energy
program is for peaceful purposes and thanked Turkey for its
endeavors to help solve the issue.
During a trip to Vienna on Tuesday, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator Ali Larijani said that Iran was willing to restart
negotiations on its nuclear program, but it rejected any
precondition.
Following his meetings with ElBaradei and some other officials
from Western countries in Vienna earlier in the day, Larijani told
reporters that Iran wants to generate fuel for peaceful civilian
purposes only.
Also on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said that Iran wants talks and
could even shut down its nuclear facilities if the US and its
allies do the same.
"We want talks, but they (the West) are imposing preconditions
that would bereave our right," he said.
"They said our nuclear plant and the fuel cycle must be closed.
This is O.K. only if those who want dialogue also suspend their own
nuclear fuel cycles, and this is justice," he said.
Ahmadinejad's tone was likely more conciliatory than before and
was seen as an effort to avoid fiery denunciation of the West
before the UN deadline.
However, the US on Tuesday immediately rejected the Iranian
president's conditional offer and urged Tehran to comply with the
UN Security Council's demand.
"That's not the way the UN Security Council resolution reads….
That is a false offer," White House spokesman Tony Snow told a news
briefing.
"The offer that the Iranians need to make is to suspend activity
that could lead to the enrichment of nuclear material that could be
used in creating a bomb," the spokesman added.
Warning that the deadline was coming, Snow said that the US was
waiting to see "what happens in the next few days in terms of
developments with the Iranians."
The US has asked Iran to stop uranium enrichment, a necessary
step both in generating nuclear energy and making a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists that its nuclear program be solely for civilian energy
purposes.
Local observers believe that the UN Security Council might
negotiate another resolution, which would likely impose tougher
sanctions on Tehran.
(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, February 22, 2007)
