AFP: Iran will not agree to talks on its nuclear programme if the UN Security Council adopts fresh sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.
ISTANBUL, June 8, 2010 (AFP) – Iran will not agree to talks on its nuclear programme if the UN Security Council adopts fresh sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.
“I have said that the US government and its allies are so mistaken that if they think they can brandish the stick of resolution and then sit down to talk with us, such a thing will not happen,” the Iranian leader told a news conference here.
“We will talk to everyone if there is respect and fairness but if someone wants to talk to us rudely and in a domineering manner the response is known already,” he added.
His warning came as the UN Security Council prepared to hold new closed-door consultations Tuesday on a fourth sanctions resolution against the Islamic Republic after its 15 members failed to reach a consensus on a meeting on Monday.
The council’s five council permanent members — Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States — are co-sponsoring the sanctions draft and are aiming to hold a vote later this week.
Ahmadinejad, who is in Turkey for the summit of an Asian security grouping, urged Western powers not to dismiss a nuclear fuel swap deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil last month.
The deal “was an opportunity for the US government and its allies…I hope they will put this to good use. Opportunities will not be repeated,” he said.
The United States and other world powers have given a cool reaction to the deal under which Iran agreed to ship 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for high-enriched uranium fuel for a Tehran reactor.
