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Iran: No retreat on nuclear issue
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-14 21:34
China on Tuesday expressed optimism that negotiations could still resolve the
dispute, calling on Tehran to cooperate.
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
addresses Iranian ambassadors based abroad during a meeting in Tehran.
Ahmadinejad defended his country's controversial nuclear program in the
face of heightened US pressure ahead of an expected UN Security Council
showdown. [AFP] |
"Now there is still room to solve the Iranian nuclear issue through
diplomatic negotiations," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang. "We
hope Iran can cooperate closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency and
do more to build up mutual confidence to help reach a solution."
But Iran's president said Iraq would not abandon its drive to produce nuclear
fuel by what he called the harsh statements and pressures by Washington and its
allies.
"Rest assured that the technology to produce nuclear fuel today is in the
hands of the youth of this land and no power can take it back from us,"
Ahmadinejad said in a speech attended by thousands in northern Iran. The crowd
responded with chants of "nuclear energy is our right."
The United States and its allies, he said, are angry because Iran has made
progress in its nuclear program.
"Today, unfortunately, few big powers want, through coercion and bullying,
prevent progress of nations... They are really angry that this great nation
(Iran) is gaining access to the peaks of progress and development."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned Monday that Iran's government is
taking the country in the "wrong direction," repressing its own people and
pursuing confrontation abroad.
Britain, France, Germany and the United States successfully pressed the
U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report Iran
to the Security Council last week after Tehran resumed nuclear research and
small-scale uranium enrichment.
Iran has insisted it will never give up its right under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. It restarted
research-scale uranium enrichment last month, two years after voluntarily
freezing the program during talks with Germany, Britain and France.
It also has threatened to start large-scale uranium enrichment if the council
imposes any sanctions on the country. Iran only has an experimental nuclear
research program and scientists say the Muslim nation is months away from
resolving technical problems to launch any large-scale uranium enrichment.
Last week, Iran offered what it called a "final proposal" to agree to suspend
large-scale enrichment temporarily in return for IAEA recognition of its right
to continue research-scale enrichment.
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