Iran to stand by atomic work
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-08-17 20:11
TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran could not
abandon its nuclear programme while the United States was developing new atomic
bombs every year, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
The Islamic republic says it wants nuclear technology only to cope with
booming electricity demand. The EU and the United States suspect it of secretly
trying to build nuclear weapons.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seen
August 3, 2006. Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran could not abandon its
nuclear programme when the United States developed new atomic bombs every
year, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
[Reuters]
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"How can the Iranian nation give up its obvious right to peaceful nuclear
technology, when America and some other countries test new atomic bombs each
year?" Ahmadinejad asked in a speech to a rally in the northwestern city of
Namin.
His comments came days ahead of an August 22 deadline Iran set itself to
respond to a demand by six world powers that Tehran scraps its enrichment
program in return for economic and other incentives. Iran has so far shown no
signs it will accept.
"Those states responsible for the atomic bombing of (Japan's) Nagasaki and
Hiroshima are now trying to deprive the Iranian nation of its right," the
official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "Those states should be
disarmed."
Tehran has vowed to expand its atomic fuel activities despite a UN Security
Council resolution on July 31 demanding it halt nuclear work by August 31 or
face the threat of sanctions.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency, will report to the Council on August 31 to certify whether Iran has
stopped atomic fuel activity or not.
"A lot of people are pessimistic. I think we will be moving toward
sanctions," said an European Union diplomat in Vienna.
Iran has denounced the July resolution, which demanded that it "suspend all
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and
development."
"The Iranian nation is determined to exercise its inalienable right (to
nuclear technology)," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars
news agency.
"Such demands and resolutions cannot harm the unity of the (Iranian)
people."
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