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iran irreversible un april 28th deadline President vows Iran 'peaceful'
Ahmadinejad says nuclear activities transparent
www.cnn.com
Monday, April 24, 2006; Posted: 9:47 a.m. EDT (13:47 GMT)



TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that his nation has been transparent in its nuclear aspirations.

Ahmadinejad addressed a group of Iranian and international journalists -- only the second time since taking office in August that the Iranian leader has allowed foreign media into a news conference.

"Our activity is quite transparent," he said, according to a translator. "We are not like others, which work in shadows. Everything is out in the open, and this in itself is a witness to the fact that we are fully peaceful."

His comments came a day after Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said its nuclear program cannot be stopped.

"We are determined not to give up our rights to nuclear energy, and suspension of relevant activities is not on our agenda," Hamid-Reza Asefi said. "The issue is irreversible."

Iran maintains its nuclear research is for a future civilian energy program, but the United States and other Western countries contend that the work is a guise to hide the development of nuclear weapons. (Watch Iran defend its right to nuclear research -- 1:37)

Iran declared April 11 that it had produced enriched uranium in concentrations capable of running a nuclear power plant, defying the U.N. Security Council's call to suspend uranium enrichment activities.

The Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to halt the program and has asked International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report back by then.

Asefi, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, said Western nations should wait for the publication of that report before trying to exert any more pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear research.

IAEA officials have said they would press Iran about Ahmadinejad's recent assertion that Iran is "now under the process of research and testing" of P-2 uranium-enrichment centrifuge technology.

With their strong rotors, P-2 centrifuges enrich uranium faster and could help Iranian scientists construct a nuclear weapon much sooner than the P-1 centrifuges they have shown to international inspectors.

U.S. intelligence officials have estimated, based on the assumption that Iran has only P-1 centrifuges, that the country is five to 10 years away from making a nuclear weapon.

But the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the United States doesn't really know how close Iran is to developing such a weapon.

"We've got a long way to go in rebuilding our intelligence community," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, told "Fox News Sunday."

"We don't have all of the information that we would like to have."

Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, concurred that "our intelligence is thin."

"This is not a time to be saber rattling in our government, talking about the military option," Harman told Fox.

"Just the fact that the Iranian government is making a lot of noise doesn't prove their capability. Remember, the Iraqi government made a lot of noise, and they had nothing."

U.S. officials have said they are pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the standoff with Iran, though President Bush has said no option is off the table.

Reporters asked Bush last week if that included the possibility of a nuclear strike.

"All options are on the table," Bush replied. "We want to solve this issue diplomatically, and we're working hard to do so."

Bush earlier this month referred to media coverage as "wild speculation" after The New Yorker magazine reported that the administration was considering a tactical nuclear strike to take out Iran's atomic program.

In part due to fears of supply disruptions in Iran, oil smashed through record highs last week, cruising past $75 a barrel. (Full storyexternal link)
U.S. to Russia: Freeze arms sales

The United States has urged Russia and other countries to stop the sale of arms and other sensitive technology to Iran in an effort to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"It's time for countries to use their leverage against Iran," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Friday. "We think it's very important that countries like Russia freeze any arms sales planned for Iran."

In recent weeks, the United States has stepped up pressure on Moscow to stop its planned sale of surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

"We hope and we trust that that deal will not go forward," Burns said after returning from Moscow, where he met with officials from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to coordinate a diplomatic strategy for dealing with Iran.

Senior officials from the permanent members of the Security Council met and failed to agree on imposing sanctions against Iran.

As part of what Burns said would be an intensified period of diplomacy on Iran, the group will meet again on May 2 in Paris, France.

The G-8 group of industrialized countries also is expected to focus on the Iran issue at its July summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Burns said.