Iran rules out suspending nuclear activities
By Sam Malcom,WNS Iran Correspondent
TEHRAN - Iran has said there was no reason to suspend its nuclear activities, maintaining a tough line despite talks with the European Union aimed at persuading Tehran to halt uranium enrichment. "Iran does not see any reason to suspend nuclear activities," state television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying Friday, a day after another key round of talks between Iran and the European Union ended in Berlin.
Mottaki's comments appeared to refer to uranium enrichment, a sensitive nuclear process that the West wants Iran to suspend as proof that it is not seeking nuclear weapons. A suspension at least of temporary nature is a key demand of the European Union and United States. Enriched uranium can be used both to make nuclear fuel and, in highly enriched form, the explosive core of an atomic bomb. But Mottaki said Western countries "have found out that threatening language and a referral to the United Nations Security Council is not efficient and there is no way for them now but to negotiate."Iran insists that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful energy needs, vehemently rejecting US allegations that it is seeking to manufacture nuclear weapons.
Washington is leading a push for UN sanctions against Iran if it fails to halt uranium enrichment and agree a deal proposed by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany that offers Tehran incentives and negotiations. Mottaki's comments represented Tehran's most explicit signal yet since the talks between its top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana that it does not intend to suspend enrichment.
The talks that ended Thursday in Berlin failed to produce an accord but both men said they were positive and constructive, with Solana hailing what he described as progress. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had vowed in a speech Thursday that Iran "would not bend" over its nuclear programme and also questioned the value of suspending uranium enrichment.
posted by wnsworld @ 6:35 PM
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