Asia-Pacific

Obama, Ahmadinejad trade barbs over 9/11

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-09-25 09:49

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holds up copies of the Koran (L) and the Bible as he addresses the 65th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2010. [Agencies]

Iran, which insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity, is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.

It has continued to defy international demands to come clean about its intentions despite offers of incentives to cooperate.

Earlier this week, the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the US, Britain, France, Russia and China -- and Germany renewed their invitation for Iran to return to the table amid signs that Tehran might be willing to resume long-stalled negotiations.

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Ahmadinejad said Friday that he thought Iran might be able reopen contact next month to set a framework for negotiations with the group, known as the P5+1. He added that he would "consider" a halt to uranium enrichment if an outside source would provide the 20-percent enriched fuel Iran needs for a medical research reactor.

But Obama seemed unimpressed with the Iranian position. He sharply criticized Iran's leadership for hurting its people by incurring severe financial and trade sanctions when it refuses to comply.

"Right now what the Iranian government has said is, it's more important for us to defy the international community, engage in a covert nuclear weapons program, than it is to make sure that our people are prospering," he told the BBC. "And the international community I don't think prefers the choice that has been taken."

Obama stressed, however, that the door to negotiations remains open. Ahmadinejad has so far refused to return to talks because of the latest round of sanctions that followed Iran's failure to respond to Obama's initial overtures.