TEHRAN, 13 March 2005 — Iran said yesterday it was determined to press on with its nuclear program, snubbing an announcement by the United States that it would offer Tehran incentives to halt sensitive fuel cycle work. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and no pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement.
Washington announced Friday it would drop objections to Iran joining the World Trade Organization and consider allowing it access to spare parts for its decrepit fleet of civilian aircraft. US President George W. Bush said the initiative was aimed at helping efforts by Britain, France and Germany to persuade Iran to abandon uranium enrichment, which could provide Tehran’s government with the capacity to build a bomb.
“I look forward to working with our European friends to make it abundantly clear to the Iranian regime that the free world will not tolerate them having a nuclear weapon,” Bush said. Vice President Dick Cheney warned Friday that Washington would not hesitate to take “stronger action” if Tehran did not abandon suspected nuclear ambitions.
But Asefi said “the remedying of some of the faults and the addressing some of the restrictions that were imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran without any cause will not prevent Iran from getting its legitimate right.
Also striking a defiant tone was Defense Minister Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani. “We are ready to confront any threats, and protecting nuclear installations is a part of this equation,” he was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA. “We will defend our nuclear installations with all our capacity.”
But Mahmoud Mohammadi, deputy head of Iran’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission, was more conciliatory.
“If the US is interested in multilateral cooperation with Iran along with the Europeans and the IAEA on the nuclear issue and other regional and international affairs, it could be reviewed,” he told IRNA. “One cannot ignore the role of the United States in the Iran-EU nuclear negotiations,” he added, but nevertheless said the United States needed to go further in easing tensions.
Meanwhile, more than 100 women graduated from Iran’s female police academy yesterday, the second only such graduation since the 1979 revolution.
An increase in felonies committed by women prompted the new infusion of female officers, with crimes ranging from the killing of husbands, to robbery and armed attacks. There were no official figures available on the rate of female crime in Iran, but officials say it is on the rise.
The just-graduated officers wore black chadors and green scarves as they shot firearms, engaged in bouts of fencing, and drove squad cars past their commander who stood in front of the Kowsar Female Police Academy.
“Female police are the answer to the ever-increasing role of women in Iran. There is a critical need for their services in criminal, intelligence and security affairs,” Gen. Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s police chief, said during the graduation ceremony.
