Iran will ‘never’ bow to ‘illegal’ enrichment freeze demands – official
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
14:35GMT—10:35AM/EST
IRAN – NUCLEAR – IAEA
Washington, 18 June (IranVNC)—Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], Ali Asghar Soltanieh, today said his country would not accept “illegal” Western demands to suspend its controversial uranium enrichment program.
In a speech at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London on a nuclear-free Middle East, Soltanieh said: “America and its allies want to illegally force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, but Iran will never give in to such illegal measures,” the state-run IRNA news agency reports.
His comments follow a trip by European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to Iran on Saturday to present a Western offer of economic and technical incentives in exchange for uranium enrichment suspension.
British officials yesterday told the London-based daily, Financial Times, that they want to give Iran time to study the offer. But Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected demands to freeze enrichment.
Speaking in London today, however, Soltanieh said: “America’s other aim is to force Iran out of the NPT [Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty], but Iran will neither leave the NPT nor will it suspend uranium enrichment.”
The United States, which is leading the international effort to persuade Iran to give up enrichment, has been pushing for restricted trade with Iran. Speaking in Beijing on 16 June, the US envoy to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte said: “This is not a time for business as usual with Iran, this is a time to demonstrate to Iran that they are hurting their country politically and economically by withholding information from the international community,” Reuters reports.
The U.S. has imposed unilateral sanctions on four of Iran’s financial institutions that augment UN-imposed restrictions on financial transactions with persons and companies connected to Tehran’s nuclear and military programs.
Speaking alongside visiting President Bush, on Monday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Britain and the EU were prepared to announce sanctions targeting Iran’s oil and natural gas sectors. No such decision was announced at a meeting of EU foreign ministers later on Monday, but Javier Solana’s spokesperson said the EU officials had agreed to take decisive action against Tehran if it ignores international demands.
At a meeting with the families of military casualties of the Iran-Iraq war, however, the chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said the West considered Iran as a “hurdle in attaining its goals in the Middle East” and it was trying to “invent new pretext against this nation,” IRNA reports. Iran says its nuclear program is meant for civilian power production and rejects western intelligence allegations that the program has a military dimension.
Sources: Islamic Republic News Agency, Reuters
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.