Ahmadinejad: Israeli threats won’t stop Iran’s nuclear program
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Iranian President Ahmadinejad speaks at a UN nuclear conference in News York, May 4, 2010 |
| Photo by: AP |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that his country would “definitely continue” its nuclear program despite Israeli hints at military action.
“Iran will definitely continue its path. You should not even doubt that we willcontinue our path. We’ll definitely continue our path,” Ahmadinejad said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.
Asking if that meant Iran was playing with fire in light of Israel’s threat of a possible military strike, Ahmadinejad said it was not. “They’re not a factor, in our defense doctrine, we don’t even count them.”
Ahmadinejad has agreed “in principle” to Brazilian mediation to revive a UN-brokered nuclear fuel swap deal with world powers, the semi-official Fars news agency earlier Wednesday.
The powers see the deal as a way to remove much of Iran’s low-enriched uranium stockpile to minimize the risk of this being used for atomic bombs, while Iran would get specially processed fuel to keep its nuclear medicine program running.
But the proposal broke down over Iran’s insistence on doing the swap only on its territory, rather than shipping its LEUabroad in advance, and in smaller, phased amounts, meaning no meaningful cut in a stockpile which grows day by day.
“In a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan counterpart, Ahmadinejad agreed in principle to Brazil’smediation over the nuclear fuel deal,” Fars said, quoting astatement issued by Ahmadinejad’s office.
The pact conceived in talks conducted by the U.N. nuclearwatchdog last October required Iran to ship 1,200 kg of its LEU, enough for one atom bomb if enriched to high grade to Russia and France for conversion into fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, which makes isotopes for cancer treatment.
The three powers have ruled out rewriting the deal’sconditions as the Islamic Republic demands.
The United States is lobbying UN Security Council members, to back a fourth round of international sanctions on Iran in the coming weeks, to press it into curbing uranium enrichment.
Iran says its nuclear energy program is designed togenerate electricity only but its failure to declare sensitiveatomic activity to the UN watchdog and continued restrictions on U.N. inspections have undermined confidence abroad.
Some nonpermanent UN Security Council members such as Brazil and Turkey are trying to revive the fuel deal with Iranin an attempt to stave off further sanctions against Tehran.
Brazil says it favors reviving a mooted compromise in which Iran could export its uranium to another country in return for nuclear fuel Iran says it needs to keep the Tehran reactor running.
It was not clear whether Ahmadinejad had agreed for the fuel swap to take place in a third country. If so, it will be a major shift in Iran’s stance against the idea.
“Ahmadinejad also said technical issues (over the deal) should be discussed in Tehran,” Fars reported.
‘Significant concessions’
Gala Riani, analyst for IHS Global Insight Middle East, said Iran “wanted to be seen” as not having closed the door tonegotiations on the nuclear fuel swap.
But she said it remained to be seen whether Wednesday’s announcement by Tehran was a real attempt to try and reach a solution on the issue.
“Unless Iran proposes some significant concessions the likelihood (of a deal) is low,” Riani said.
Iran started enrichment to 20 percent fissile purity in February, up from 5 per cent, to create fuel for the research reactor itself, bring Iran closer to levels needed for producing weapons-grade material – uranium refined to 90 per cent purity.
In a speech to a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference at the United Nations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that Iran’s nuclear ambitions put the world at risk and called on nations to rally around U.S.efforts to finally hold the Islamic Republic to account.
The five permanent members of the Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – along with Germany are in talks over a broader sanctions resolution against Iran.
Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the Security Council, have said they are willing to give Turkey and Brazil more time to resuscitate the nuclear fuel deal
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