Mahmood promises ‘innovations’ to solve row: Tehran resumes N-fuel work; EU calls off talks
TEHRAN, Aug 24: Iran wants negotiations over its nuclear programme to continue and is finalizing ‘innovations’ to resolve the dispute, President Mahmood Ahmadinejad announced on Wednesday.
Iran on Wednesday stuck by its decision to resume fuel work, in comments a day after EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany announced they had cancelled talks with Iran scheduled for Aug 31 in Paris.
In Paris, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday night that the EU 3 called off the planned meeting because of Tehran’s decision to resume work on nuclear fuel processing.
The three countries, acting on behalf of the EU, recently offered Iran nuclear technology, including access to nuclear fuel, increased trade and help with Tehran’s regional security concerns.
But Tehran rejected it because the European proposal was conditional on Iran’s ceasing uranium enrichment. Iran then went ahead and resumed preliminary uranium conversion work.
The IAEA board, which is to receive a report on Iran on Sept 3 from agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, has called on Tehran to reinstate the suspension of nuclear fuel work.
mahmood’s pledge: Mr Mahmood told reporters that Iran would also defend its ‘lawful rights’ in the nuclear domain — a reference to the country’s demand to hold on to sensitive atomic energy fuel cycle technology that the West fears could be diverted to weapons use.
“Our policy is transparent and clear: we are after the nation’s lawful rights within the framework of international law and we will defend these rights seriously,” he said on the sidelines of a parliamentary confidence vote on his proposed cabinet.
But he added that “we want the negotiations to continue”, even though talks with Britain, France and Germany have broken off due to Iran’s decision to partially end its suspension of uranium enrichment-related work.
“I have some innovations concerning the fuel cycle which are being finalised by the experts and the details will be known,” he said, but did not elaborate.
‘MATYRDOM LOVERS’: A new Iranian militia group calling itself the ‘Martyrdom Lovers’ is preparing to stage its first manoeuvres aimed at defending nuclear sites from a US attack, a hardline paper said.
The commander of the suicide group, Mohammad Reza Jaffari, told the Parto Sokhan weekly that the forthcoming exercise was codenamed ‘Yes to Khamenei’, in dedication to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“This will be the first manoeuvres of the martyrdom-seeking brigades,” he said, adding the volunteers will ‘work on new tactics of how to defend the sensitive and strategic areas and how to destroy the hypothetical enemy by implementing a human shield’.
The United States ‘should know that each martyrdom-seeker is an atomic bomb’, he told the paper, which had earlier this month carried an advertisement seeking people to join the group.
US LOBBYING: The United States is lobbying hard for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council if it fails to meet a Sept 3 deadline to suspend nuclear fuel work, diplomats said on Wednesday.
The United States is ‘working hard behind the scenes’ to build consensus against Iran within the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which could ask the Security Council to consider economic sanctions against Tehran, a Western diplomat said.—AFP
