AFP: Iran will “not surrender to any sort of pressure and threat”, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Tuesday, as the country faced the threat of being referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme. AFP
TEHRAN – Iran will “not surrender to any sort of pressure and threat”, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Tuesday, as the country faced the threat of being referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme.
“The great Iranian nation today, stronger than before and with a determined will to reach its aims and goals, stands solidly and will not surrender to any sort of pressure and threat,” Khamenei said in a speech read out on state television.
“The president, at the United Nations and before the eyes of the world, solidly and with power outlined Iran’s position which was the words of all Iranians,” Khamenei said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tough declaration to the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
“His speech meant that the Iranian nation has a powerful and unwavering will,” Khamenei said.
The all-powerful leader’s declaration came as Europe’s top three powers distributed a draft resolution at the UN atomic watchdog calling for Iran to be reported to the UN Security Council over potentially weapons-related nuclear fuel work.
The emergence of the draft resolution ends weeks of speculation about how strongly the West would move to counter Iran after it resumed fuel work last month, claiming its nuclear program is peaceful and that it had the right to this technology under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
