Iran will ignore any United Nations Security Council demands to halt its disputed nuclear programme, hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday.
”We won’t back down one iota on our lawful and inalienable rights,” the president was quoted as saying by the official news agency Irna.
”If international institutions respect our legitimate rights, we will respect their decisions. However, we will not regard these decisions as valid if they are intended to deny us our rights,” he said.
”We hope they will fulfil their duty lawfully so that the Islamic republic will not need to reconsider its relations with them.”
The Security Council had asked Iran to freeze uranium enrichment work by Friday.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is to report to the Council on Friday on Iranian compliance.
Enrichment makes what can be fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also for atomic bomb material.
Iran has rejected the UN demand, insisting it only wants to generate electricity and that fuel cycle work is therefore a ”legitimate right” enshrined by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
According to Ahmadinejad, the dispute served as a ”trial for international bodies to prove whether they are defending the rights of nations or whether they are acting as puppets in the hands of some bullying powers”.
The rest of the world, he added, must ”accept Iran as a nuclear country, which is an undeniable fact”.
”The few countries opposed to us … want to make us give concessions through psychological warfare and propaganda,” he was quoted as saying. – AFP
