“We are ready to resume talks with them, but we have conditions that will be announced soon,” he said.
Ahmadinejad made it clear that Iran’s ‘nuclear path’ will not be negotiable in any discussions, highlighting Tehran’s defiance.
He said Iran was in favour of talks but the situation had changed and “it is now our turn to make a move to force you to behave”, in reference to world powers including the US, Russia and China.
“If they think they can use sticks to pressure Iran, we say that the Iranian nation will break all of their sticks,” he said.
“They will take to the grave the wish of overstepping the Iranian nation’s rights by (even the smallest amount),” Ahmadinejad added.
Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, says its nuclear programme is peaceful and primarily aimed at generating electricity to meet the booming demand. But its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can have both civilian and military uses, has drawn four rounds of UN sanctions, while the European Union is planning its own sanctions against the country. “We are ready to resume talks with them...but we have conditions that will be announced soon,” Ahmadinejad said.
Iran’s determination to press ahead with work was underlined by an official who announced plans to build four more medical research reactors.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said on Wednesday that the country would construct four new and more powerful research reactors, state television reported.
Western analysts have voiced doubt about Iran’s capability of producing the fuel needed for such reactors, but Salehi said it would be produced before September. “Iran plans to build more research reactors to become an exporter of cancer medicine to Islamic and regional countries.”
Published in the Express Tribune, June 17th, 2010.
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