WarSclerotic

Iran’s supreme leader said on Wednesday the Islamic Republic would not conduct talks with the United States about its nuclear program unless sanctions and military threats are lifted.

	Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) talking with Iran’s naval chief, after a military exercise in the Gulf in February, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

“What they say, our president and others are saying, that we will negotiate – yes we will – but not with America, because America is not negotiating honestly and like a normal negotiator,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech to senior officials.

“Put away the threats and put away the sanctions,” he added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s atomic chief said the country had no alternative than resisting world powers in the dispute over its nuclear programs, the ISNA news agency reported earlier Wednesday.

“Today, our only option in the nuclear dispute is resistance, and if we do resist, then the opposition against our nuclear programs will collapse,” Ali-Akbar Salehi predicted.

Using nuclear power to generate energy would also generate economic benefits because no fossil fuels are necessary, he said.

	Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, gestures to chief of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, after unveiling of uranium centrifuge in Tehran on April 9, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

Iran has insisted that all its nuclear projects are solely for peaceful purposes and rejected Western charges that it is working on a secret military program.

Tehran rejected all past demands to suspend its uranium enrichment, saying it is its legitimate right to pursue nuclear technology.

“We have so far succeeded to resist all political pressures, and the more they pressure us, the more we accelerate the speed of our programs,” Salehi said.

Iran’s first nuclear power plant, which was built by Russia, is to be opened Saturday in the southern Gulf port of Bushehr. The 1,000-megawatt reactor is to become fully operational within six to seven months.

“There are 1,000 Iranian experts in Bushehr who will take charge of the plant from the Russians as soon as the guarantee phase is over,” Salehi said.

He also said “more happy news” about Iran’s nuclear achievements would be announced in the coming days.

Iran plans to build 10 to 20 nuclear power plants and enrichment sites in the coming years with the final aim to produce enough nuclear fuel to cover its electricity needs.

Iran currently operates one uranium conversion and one enrichment site. A second enrichment plant is under construction.

According to Salehi, construction of a third enrichment site is to start by March.