New York Times: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday described efforts by the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran as disgraceful. The New York Times
By NAZILA FATHI
Published: November 13, 2006
TEHRAN, Nov. 12 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday described efforts by the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran as disgraceful.
It is disgraceful that the Security Council, which should be the defender of nations security and rights, creates cases against countries that seek to produce nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes and threatens them, he said, addressing the general assembly of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace, which was founded in 1999 to promote peace and development and now has 39 members. It is meeting in Tehran.
The five permanent members of the Security Council Britain, France, the United States, China and Russia are scheduled, along with Germany, to resume talks Monday on a European draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program.
Iran contends that its nuclear program is peaceful and that its aim is to produce fuel for its nuclear power plants.
Mr. Ahmadinejad accused the United Nations of applying a double standard for not objecting to development of unconventional weapons by Britain, the United States and Israel. He said the nuclear-armed countries sought to deny the right of other countries to produce nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes because they feared they could lose their monopoly over the technology.
They are afraid that independent countries, such as the Islamic Republic, would not let them maintain their monopoly over nuclear fuel, he said.
Irans chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, returned from Moscow on Sunday after a series of talks with Russian officials. Russia is urging the other five countries that are discussing the sanctions to resume talks with Iran.
Mr. Larijani said Friday in Moscow that Iran would not halt its program and that sanctions would not harm it, the ISNA news agency reported. He also said, commenting on the results of the American elections, that he believed that the Democrats would adopt a softer approach toward Iran over its nuclear program to avoid more tension.
