W. Bush started a European tour which will include
discussions on Iran and other foreign policy issues. Reuters
TEHRAN – Iran has reiterated that it will not bow to U.S. and European demands that it abandon uranium enrichment, stressing that its nuclear capability is “not for sale”.
Tehran stood defiant on the nuclear issue as U.S. President George W. Bush started a European tour which will include discussions on Iran and other foreign policy issues.
Washington and the European Union both want Tehran to scrap uranium enrichment, a process which can be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants or bomb-grade material.
But the United States has refused to join an initiative by the EU, represented by France, Germany and Britain, to offer Iran incentives to curtail its nuclear programme.
“I believe the European countries have eventually understood that Iran’s nuclear capability is not for sale,” said Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran’s negotiating team currently engaged in talks about the nuclear issue with the EU.
“The final agreement in these negotiations will be based on the continuation of (uranium) enrichment by Iran,” Naseri told the official IRNA news agency in Vienna.
“We will give the Europeans an opportunity to reach this stance but this opportunity won’t be permanent,” he added.
Iran says it has no intention of building nuclear weapons and has said it is prepared to provide “objective guarantees” that its nuclear facilities will not be used to make bombs. But it has not said what those guarantees could be.
Tehran faces possible referral to the U.N. Security Council and sanctions, and the threat of military attack — although Bush said on Friday military action was not Washington’s first choice for dealing with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Naseri said such comments were due to the realisation that a military attack would not destroy Iran’s nuclear know-how.
“The fact that U.S. officials emphasise that a military attack is not considered yet only means that a military attack would have no real impact because neither the United States nor Europe or any other country can stop Iran from improving its capabilities in nuclear technology,” he said.
