Renegade Iran Rubs EU's Nose in Poo, Vows to Press On With Atomic Plans

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Iran_Vows_to_Press_On_Wit/2007/11/30/53433.html

Iran Vows to Press On With Atomic Plans

Friday, November 30, 2007

Iran vowed to pursue its disputed atomic program come what may, reducing the

chances that talks on Friday with the European Union would avert U.S.

pressure for tougher international sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said late on Thursday that

nothing would deflect the Islamic Republic from its pursuit of nuclear

technology and that Washington had "lost" in its attempts to stop them.

"The Iranian nation will never return from the path that they have chosen

and they are determined and decisive to continue this path (to obtain

nuclear technology)," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news

agency.

If there is no progress at Friday's talks in London, six world powers due to

meet in Paris on Saturday will try to agree new penalties to propose to the

U.N. despite differences in their approach to halting Irans's nuclear

program.

The West says the program is aimed at building atom bombs and wants a freeze

on its enrichment of uranium. Iran, a major oil exporter, says enrichment

efforts are meant only to produce electricity which it says is an

inalienable right.

Attempts by the six nations -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and

the United States -- to stall Iran's program have failed and they vowed to

pass a new U.N. Security Council resolution if there was no progress by

December.

The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany plan to

draft a new resolution imposing wider financial, trade and visa restrictions

to increase pressure on Tehran to stop enriching uranium, which can be used

in atomic bombs.

But diplomats and analysts say Iran will see little reason to suspend

uranium enrichment given that the six powers remain at odds over how soon to

resort to more United Nations penalties, or how harsh they should be.

Russia and China, and to a lesser extent Germany, have close commercial ties

to Iran and are likely to tailor their new sanctions proposals accordingly,

taking a less hawkish approach than that of the United States, Britain and

France.

"America is angry with Iran over its nuclear program but they know that the

cost of attacking Iran will be very high," Mottaki told a gathering of the

Basij religious militia. "America has lost in its nuclear challenge with

Iran."

"NOTHING HAS CHANGED"

Tehran said earlier this week that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed

Jalili would put forward "new initiatives" to European Union foreign policy

chief Javier Solana in London on Friday, without giving further details.

But it said there will be no talk about suspension of nuclear fuel work and

Solana's spokeswoman said on Friday the European Union had nothing new to

put on the table.

She said they had taken note of Mottaki's comments before the meeting, that

started at about 1000 GMT. "We have to see what Jalili says at the meeting

.... nothing has changed."

Jalili replaced Ali Larijani as chief nuclear negotiator in October. Close

to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is seen by analysts as

signaling a hardening of Iran's position.

"They (Western countries) shouldn't make threats because threats make Iran

more determined," former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told worshippers

at Tehran University.

Rafsanjani, who is also the speaker of the powerful Assembly of Experts,

said Iran was cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency

(IAEA), referring to an August agreement under which Tehran pledged to the

Vienna-based body to clear up suspicions about past secret atomic

activities.

Iran has barred inspections beyond uranium production sites since its case

was referred to the U.N. Security Council in February 2006, fuelling

suspicions in the West that it has a covert parallel military nuclear

program.

The IAEA sees wide-ranging access to Iran's sites under its Additional

Protocol with member states as key to verifying there is no such program.

"Iran has no program to discuss the Additional Protocol at its parliament

and Iran has no commitment regarding the implementation of the Additional

Protocol," Mottaki said.