IRAN: Tehran won't budge on enrichment, officials say

The news surprised no one.

Over the weekend, an official close to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, ruled out any halt to its ongoing enrichment of uranium as a precondition for international talks, dashing whatever faint hopes there were for a quick resolution of the crisis over Iran's nuclear program.

Ali Akbar Velayati is a senior foreign policy adviser to Iran’s ultimate political and spiritual authority. He told state media that while Iran accepted talks over its controversial production of enriched uranium, which can be used to power an electricity plant or, if highly augmented, a nuclear weapon, “We want talks without any precondition on the enrichment issue,“ he said in remarks broadcast on state television.

As everyone knows, the United States is leading a campaign to pressure Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. It signed off on a package of proposed incentives meant to lure Iran into giving up its drive to toward mastering the enrichment of uranium in exchange for economic and political goodies. Iran delivered its response Friday.

But anyone who was hoping for an Iranian U-turn was disappointed.

On Saturday, government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, a loyalist to the faction of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reiterated Iran’s longstanding position that it won’t stop producing nuclear material, a highly technical process that involves running uranium gas through spinning centrifuges.

Iran rejected a similar package of proposals in 2006 for the same reason, a move that led to three sets of relatively mild U.N. Security Council sanctions.

The U.S. and Israel have not ruled out war, and Iran too has been thumping its chest.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Ali Akbar Velayati. Credit: File photo

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Comments

[rh]

Dear Sir,
Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons. Iran should be stopped otherwise it will be to late and the world will be under the mercy of a catastrophy"

Dear Mr Murdani-stein from tel-aviv how does one get mercy of a catastrophy?

RH

[morgan]

It is only a matter of time before Israel strikes at Iran.

[Ziggy]

Section 1 of Article IV of the NPT states, "Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with articles I and II of this Treaty"

Therefore as a signatory to the NPT, Iran's enrichment of uranium is perfectly legal and its INALIENABLE RIGHT. No nation or organisation has the right to try and prevent Iran from conducting legal activity. The UNSC sanctions are therefore illegal and Iran has no obligation to acceopt any incentive or deal that abrogaties its legal rights.

The threat of attack by the USA is typical warmongering and based on yet more fabrications, just like WMD in Iraq. Where is the evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons? Nobody has seen any, not the UN, not the IAEA and certainly not the Americans themselves, because if they had, they'd be screaming it from the rooftops.

On top of that, the USA has committed blatant acts of war by allocating $400 million to destabilise and overthrow the government of Iran, a sovereign nation. Reciprocity is the key. I think that Iran should allocate a smiliar amount to dissidents and revolutionaries in the USA to overthrow the government there, maybe fund a few Tim McVeighs to blow up the White House with Bush and Cheney in it. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, n'est ce pas???

But this is no more than the Americans are doing in Iran, funding terrorist organisations such as Jundullah, infiltrating Iranian terrirory with covert US special forces, kidnapping Iranians and taking them to Iraq for interrogation and other acts of war.

I have to laugh when I see the shocked look on American faces whenever 9/11 is mentioned. Here's some news, guys. 9/11 probably would not have happened if the Americans had minded their own business and refrained from interfering in the affairs of other nations, plundering their resources and propping up ruthless fascist dictators. Don't forget that Saddam Hussein was an American product, just like the Shah of Iran, who terrified the Iranian population with his SAVAK Gestapo until the Iranians themselves overthrew him.

But I fear that lessons of the past have not been learned and the USA is yet again fomenting another war, but this one could easily lead to World War 3.

[Alan Mardini]

Dear Sir,
Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons. Iran should be stopped otherwise it will be to late and the world will be under the mercy of a catastrophy. US and western world should use force since diplomacy has not given any solution. US and western world should support the Iranian opposition groups such as PJAK and other group with real support to make regime change. This is the only solution better then a direct war.

Regards,
Alan Mardini
Kurdistan, Kermanshah