Reuters: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday said Iran would not halt its drive to produce its own nuclear fuel because it did not trust the West to guarantee a supply to feed its planned atomic power reactors. 
TEHRAN (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday said Iran would not halt its drive to produce its own nuclear fuel because it did not trust the West to guarantee a supply to feed its planned atomic power reactors.
Speaking in Mecca, where he was attending an Islamic summit, Ahmadinejad said Iran’s right to develop a full civilian nuclear program was non-negotiable.
“We are not allowed to negotiate on the principle of having peaceful nuclear technology,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted him as telling a news conference.
European Union leaders warned Iran on Wednesday not to pursue work on machines able to make uranium fuel enriched to the grade used in nuclear bombs, saying such moves defied efforts to ease an international crisis over Tehran’s atomic program.
Iran has cold-shouldered an offer by the “EU3” powers — Britain, France and Germany — to resume dialogue this month based on Russia’s proposal to process Iranian uranium as a joint venture to minimize the risk of bomb-making by Tehran.
The Islamic republic says its nuclear project aims only to produce electricity, not weapons as the West suspects.
Ahmadinejad said the West had no right to suspect Iran.
“Those who have many nuclear weapons and have used them in the past century against defenceless people … are accusing Iran of deviating toward nuclear weapons,” he said.
“You are telling us we can’t produce nuclear fuel, that we will give it to you. You who imposed medical embargoes on nations that caused the death of countless numbers of people, what guarantees are there that you will give us nuclear fuel?
“Is there any real guarantee that when you give us fuel and we become dependent on you that we receive the fuel at the proper time and a reasonable price?”
(Additional reporting by Souhail Karam in Mecca)
