Mark Heinrich, Vienna June 4, 2006 AdvertisementAdvertisement
IRAN'S president has insisted on his country's right to nuclear technology, despite facing what Washington called a "moment of truth" over a program that could produce atomic weapons.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments suggested Tehran may have already decided to reject offers of incentives and negotiations from six of the world's top powers in return for ending atomic fuel activities.
"Pressure of some Western countries to force Iran to abandon its right (to nuclear technology) will not get a result," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Although Mr Ahmadinejad did not mention uranium enrichment, Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said Iran's plans included such sensitive work.
"Iran is determined to go ahead with its nuclear enrichment work for peaceful purposes," he told students' news agency ISNA.
But United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice still held out the possibility she would meet Iranian officials in what would be the highest-level such face-to-face contact since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Washington cut ties with Iran in 1980.
"It depends of course on what Iran does," she told National Public Radio. Washington says Iran must stop atomic fuel work before any talks.
"If Iran is prepared to verifiably suspend its program and enter into negotiations, then we'll determine the level (of representation), but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the ministers meet at some point," she said.
Iran was facing a "moment of truth", she told CBS.
Highlighting US fears about Iran's intentions, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told BBC Radio Iran could have an atomic bomb as early as 2010 and accused Tehran of being the top state sponsor of terrorism.
The White House said Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks were just a "negotiating position" and urged Iran to study a basket of incentives, approved by the US, British, French, German Russian and Chinese foreign ministers at a Vienna meeting yesterday, before officially responding.
European officials will give Iranian officials a detailed presentation of the incentives in the next couple of days and a formal answer is hoped for within weeks, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
Decision-making in Iran can be drawn out by a complex political structure with ultimate power resting in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, says it wants to enrich uranium only to the level required for use in atomic reactors to generate electricity and has no interest in making highly-enriched uranium, a key ingredient in nuclear warheads.
Russia and China, which do not believe Iran poses an imminent threat to peace as Western leaders believe, have opposed threatening Iran with sanctions if it defies such demands.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday it was too early to speak about sanctions against Iran.
"As far as sanctions are concerned, we think it is a bit too early at the moment to talk about that," Mr Putin said at a meeting with the chiefs of international news agencies in Moscow.
"We need to have a deep conversation with the Iranian leadership. Only after that can we talk about the next step," he said.
