Tehran, October 23
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today western powers were wrong if they thought Iran would retreat under political pressure from its nuclear plans, even as the country faces possible sanctions.
Iran faces the prospect of penalties after its case was sent back to the UN Security Council for failing to heed a UN demand to suspend uranium enrichment, a process the West believes Tehran is using to develop atomic weapons. France, Britain and Germany are drafting a Security Council sanctions resolution. But Iranian officials have shrugged off the threat, and say Iran will press ahead with its programme.
“They
(the West) should know that taking advantage of nuclear energy is the
demand of the Iranian nation... All Iranian nation insists on this right
and will not retreat one iota,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised
speech.
“Our leader is standing strong and sturdy and our nation is
standing unified and consolidated,” he said in a town on the southern
edge of Tehran. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the
final say in nuclear and other matters. But, like Ahmadinejad, he has
also insisted Iran will not give up its atomic plans.
Iran, the world’s
fourth largest oil exporter, insists it wants to produce fuel for
nuclear power plants and dismisses charges it wants nuclear weapons.
France, Britain and Germany have been discussing the draft resolution
with the US, which wants tough action.
Russia and China, which can veto a UN resolution and are both major trade partners of Iran, are loathe to impose penalties.
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today noted that so far there was no
resolution before the Security Council and there was still the
possibility of an agreement with Iran, which would “open the way to
negotiations”.
Lavrov was speaking at a joint news conference with EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Ferrero-Waldner
said: “We do not want Iran to be a nuclear weapons state.”
He
noted efforts to clinch a deal with Iran had, so far, failed and “for
the time being, there will not be another alternative other than
exploring ways to work on the Security Council resolution”. European
states say measures will be incremental. Diplomats say steps are likely
to initially target nuclear-related activities. Some European diplomats
say a tough resolution could boost support for Ahmadinejad’s
conservative government.
“It (a tough resolution) would play right
into the hands of the conservatives because they will have the perfect
excuse for any economic failures,’’ one European diplomat said.
— Reuters
