Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ari Larijani warned on Tuesday that a ”long road” remains ahead before Tehran’s atomic stand-off with the West can be solved, after his latest talks with European officials.
”We had very wide-ranging discussions. We were following up on the Tehran negotiations and in the meantime we have had contacts by telephone,” he said after talks with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels.
”During these negotiations certain important points came up. Mr Solana must consult his friends, and then we will have to define together how we will proceed, because we have a long road to travel.
”We have to be precise and patient,” he said.
Solana said the two men had reviewed developments since he initially made the West’s offer to Tehran during a visit to the Iranian capital on June 6.
He added that he would report to foreign ministers of the six countries behind the offer — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. ”We will make an analysis … to see how we proceed,” he said.
We will not back down ‘one iota’
Meanwhile, in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Monday that Iran is determined to complete its controversial nuclear-fuel cycle work and will not back down ”one iota” in the face of international pressure.
”The Iranian nation is determined to obtain all of its rights, including full nuclear rights and the complete exploitation of the nuclear-fuel cycle,” he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
”It will not back down one iota in the face of ill-intentioned propaganda,” he was quoted as telling a rally in the town of Malakan, in north-western Iran.
He also hit out at Israel, believed to be the only nuclear-armed nation in the Middle East, and its supporters in the West.
”They say they want to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Any move by a nation towards development is said to be harming Israel. But what kind of a regime is it that’s harmed by another nation’s development,” he fumed.
The Islamic republic has insisted it is serious about defusing the nuclear stand-off, but has so far indicated that it is unwilling to suspend its uranium-enrichment activities.
Iran says it wants to enrich uranium only to make civilian reactor fuel, although the process can be extended to make nuclear weapons. — AFP
