Iran Slams U.N. Nuclear Report, Stressing ‘No Compromise’
Iran's envoy to the IAEA said Wednesday his country "will never compromise its legitimate rights" in pursuing its atomic program, as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country "will not budge an iota" from its nuclear path.
The Iranian statements came a day after a U.N. report affirmed that credible evidence suggested Tehran was pursuing atomic weapons.
"As a responsible state, the Islamic republic of Iran will never compromise its legitimate rights and will continue to comply with its commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, as cited by the official IRNA news agency.
"Iran will continue its peaceful nuclear activities. And, just as many other previous claims were proven baseless, this time also they will not bear any results," he said.
Ahmadinejad rejected allegations that Iran's civilian nuclear program was being used to build a nuclear arsenal, saying, "We don't need the atomic bomb," in a speech broadcast by state television.
He told a crowd in the western city of Shahr-e Kord: "We will not budge an iota from the path we are committed to."
For his part, Soltanieh stressed that Iran's nuclear program was entirely peaceful and that Iran would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
His comments came a day after the IAEA released its report saying "credible" evidence existed to suggest Iran had done work towards building nuclear warheads.
Soltanieh, who late Tuesday dismissed the report as "politically motivated", on Wednesday accused IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of making a "historic mistake" in releasing the document.
Amano had displayed "unbalanced, unprofessional and political" behavior in publishing the report, which contained "false claims" based on information from Iran's arch-foe the United States and other countries, Soltanieh said.
President Ahmadinejad rounded on the United States, which he accused of providing the "empty claims" contained in the International Atomic Energy Agency report.
"We will not build two bombs in the face of your 20,000. We will develop something that you cannot respond to, which is ethics, humanity, solidarity and justice," Ahmadinejad said.
"You should know that no enemy of the Iranian people has ever tasted victory," he said.
The United States used the report's release to say it would seek to ratchet up pressure on Iran, which is already subject to international sanctions over its nuclear program.
The IAEA said in its report it had "serious concerns" over information that Iran "has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."
Although it stopped short of bluntly accusing Iran of trying to make nuclear weapons, it said it appeared activities had been carried out that included computer modeling of a nuclear warhead, explosives tests, and studying how to arm a medium-range missile with an atomic warhead.
Iran has always maintained that its nuclear program is for exclusively civilian uses, not military ones.
Its two allies on the U.N. Security Council, Russia and China, are seen by experts as likely to block any attempt by the IAEA to report Iran to the council in an effort to broaden sanctions.
Source: Agence France Presse
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