WORLD / Middle East
Iran: Sanctions won't stop enrichment
(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-05 10:49
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clenches his fist during a public
gathering in the city of Karaj, 21 miles (35 kilometers) west of the
capital Tehran, Iran, September 28, 2006. [AP Photo]
Hashterd, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Wednesday that
sanctions will not stop Iran from enriching uranium after a European
negotiator conceded "endless hours" of talks had made little progress and
suggested the dispute could wind up at the UN soon. (Full Coverage on
Iran Nuke Issue )
The talks had been seen as a last-ditch attempt to avoid a full-blown
confrontation between Iran and the UN Security Council after Tehran
ignored an Aug. 31 deadline to suspend enrichment, a key step toward
making nuclear weapons, or face punishment.
The latest comments, and the view of senior UN diplomats who said on
Tuesday that nearly two years of intermittent negotiations had failed,
suggested an emerging consensus that the time has finally come to
consider Security Council sanctions.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and does not
violate international law. Its refusal to give up enrichment compounds
the failure of more than three years of UN inspections to banish
suspicions that Tehran might have a secret weapons program. The conflict
picked up steam after last year's election of the hard-line Ahmadinejad,
whose tough stance on the nuclear issue is wildly popular in Iran, even
among moderates.
Javier Solana, the European official who has been negotiating with the
Iranians, told the European Parliament on Wednesday that the Iranians had
made "no commitment to suspend." The dialogue with the Iranians "cannot
last forever" and it was up to Tehran "to decide whether its time has
come to end," he said.
Solana said his talks had found "common ground" on some issues "but we
have not agreed in what is the key point, which is the question of
suspension of activities before the start of the negotiations." He
suggested that if the talks ended, the standoff should be moved to the
Security Council.
In a speech shortly afterward, Ahmadinejad warned that sanctions would
not dissuade his country from pursuing nuclear technology, including the
enrichment of uranium.
"You are mistaken if you assume that the Iranian nation will stop for
even a moment from the path toward using nuclear energy, due to your
nagging," he told the West, speaking to a crowd of supporters outside
Iran's capital.
"For 27 years they haven't allowed us to use technologies that they
possess," Ahmadinejad added. "This nation is powerful and won't give in
to one iota of coercion."
In an apparent response to Solana, the Iranian president said his nation
favored continued negotiations.
"We are for talks. We can talk with each other and remove ambiguities. We
have logic. We want talks to continue," he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and foreign ministers from five
other major powers were expected to meet, possibly Friday in London, to
discuss the situation.
Diplomats said the Security Council could meet as early as Monday to
start work on a resolution imposing the first of a series of sanctions
meant to make Iran roll back its program.
Iran was initially referred to the Security Council in February by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, which said
Tehran's suspicious activities represented breaches of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty. The Vienna-based agency also said it could not
be sure Iran was not trying to make weapons.
The United States insisted that Tehran halt enrichment as a precondition
for further talks on its nuclear program, but Iran ignored the Aug. 31
deadline set by the Security Council.
The Americans then agreed to let Solana hold more talks with the Iranians
after Russia, China and France spoke out against a rush to sanctions.
At first, both Solana and Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, had
signaled progress in the talks.
On Tuesday, however, diplomats said Larijani told Solana that the
hard-line Iranian leadership had rejected a limited enrichment freeze.
One diplomat said Western council members, the United States, Britain and
France, favor an embargo on sales of nuclear or missile technology to
Tehran as a first sanctions step. That would be followed by other
sanctions, including travel bans on Iranian officials and the freezing of
their assets.
Iran has so far shown little concern about the prospect of such
sanctions, perhaps because such limited sanctions would not greatly hurt
the country overall.
China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, asked whether Beijing would support
possible sanctions if Iran doesn't suspend uranium enrichment, said
Wednesday that over the last few weeks "there has been some progress" in
the Solana-Larijani talks so the door isn't completely shut.
"But I do hope that diplomatic means is still the best way to achieve a
solution on this Iranian nuclear issue," he said.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he hadn't heard Solana's
comments, but if Solana was saying that Iran now had a choice of whether
to suspend enrichment or face sanctions "it will be a very sad moment."
"We were very supportive of Mr. Solana's efforts and still are if he
intends to continue those efforts. Of course, it was our hope that those
efforts would be successful and things will be resolved diplomatically,"
Churkin said. "We do not want any extra work load here in the Security
Council anyway, and of course, it's a very important matter and we are
hoping Mr. Solana will be successful."
US Ambassador John Bolton, asked about the possibility of the UN Security
Council discussing sanctions against Iran, said: "We haven't discussed
sanctions here in New York for weeks, many weeks, lots of weeks. But as
soon as I'm instructed, I'm prepared to begin as soon as the cable comes
in."
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