AFP: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands Tehran halt sensitive nuclear work, saying the Iranian people did not accept the “language of force”. TEHRAN, Aug 15, 2006 (AFP) – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands Tehran halt sensitive nuclear work, saying the Iranian people did not accept the “language of force”.
“If they think they can use a resolution as a stick against us, they should know that Iranian people do not bend to language of force,” Ahmadinejad told a vast crowd in the northwest province of Ardebil.
The UN Security Council on July 31 adopted a resolution requiring Iran to suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment by August 31 or risk possible sanctions.
The West, led by the United States, suspects it could be trying to build nuclear weapons, charges denied by Tehran.
Ahmadinejad said he had received a telephone call from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan advising him to respond to an international offer aimed at ending the standoff.
“In return, I told him that we are willing to resolve the problem through negotiations… but by this resolution, we have lost our confidence in them,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech carried live on state television.
He reiterated that Iran would respond on August 22 to the international package of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment that was offered by the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany.
“We will give our response on the announced date, and our reply will be based on defending the absolute rights of the Iranian people,” he said, amid chants of “nuclear energy is our undeniable right”.
“Today, we have completely and indigenously mastered the nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful use,” he said, adding: “If they do not recognise the right of Iranian people today, the Iranian people will make them to give in and bend to them later.
