Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has struck a defiant tone on his country's nuclear issue as some major Western nations issued fresh warnings against the Islamic Republic.
Ahmadinejad told a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that Iran is determined to continue its nuclear program despite opposition from some "big powers."
"According to regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), every country has the right to gain access to peaceful nuclear energy," the Iranian president said.
Some "big powers" would not admit Iran's advancement and want to deprive the Iranians of their "legal rights and peaceful utilization" of nuclear energy, he said, adding "the nuclear issue is over... They could not push us back."
Ahmadinejad's remarks came as U.S. President George W. Bush warned Tuesday that Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere and the United States is ready to confront the danger.
"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," Bush said in a speech to the American Legion veterans group in Reno, Nevada.
The United States has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, which has been denied by Iran by saying that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Earlier on Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a similar warning, vowing that "an Iran equipped with a nuclear arm" was "unacceptable".
Sarkozy told a French ambassadors' conference in Paris that " France will spare no efforts in convincing Iran that it has a lot to gain by engaging in serious negotiations with Europeans, Chinese, Russians and Americans."
However, Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the UN atomic watchdog, maintained that the Iranian nuclear issue should be settled through dialogue and isolation could only make Iran's hardliners stronger.
He told Austria's magazine Profile that "we must affirm that Iran opened its nuclear program and it was a progress," adding " Iran has worked out an action plan with the IAEA to solve the open issues concerning its nuclear program", referring to an agreement reached between the two sides early last week in Tehran.
The pact was meant to eliminate the IAEA's concerns over any possible military involvement in Iran's nuclear program and to improve access for UN inspectors to its underground uranium- enrichment plant.
On Monday, the IAEA published on its website the text of the joint work plan on how to resolve outstanding issues between the agency and Iran.
It states that Iran provided clarifications to the IAEA to help explain all remaining questions it had about its plutonium program and the two sides have been cooperating in preparing the safeguards approach for the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article