TEHRAN, 17 August 2004 — Iran is determined to proceed with its nuclear program despite international concern, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has insisted, the state news agency IRNA reported yesterday. “The Islamic republic will continue on the reasonable path which will result in the peaceful use of nuclear energy without concerning itself about all this fuss and bother,” Khamenei told Iranian ambassadors at a meeting in Tehran Sunday, the agency said.
Khamenei, without whose approval no official decision can be taken, stressed the need for Iran to convince the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intentions as the UN body has been investigating Iran’s nuclear program for more than a year.
“But the means of winning their confidence must be based on reason,” he added. He also recalled the outraged reaction in the West to the news that Iran was to resume manufacturing of parts for centrifuges to enrich uranium, underlining that such production “does not contravene any (international) agreement”.
Despite suspicion from abroad, Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is entirely for civil purposes but since 2003 the IAEA has pointed the finger at the country’s lack of cooperation in helping confirm that it is not secretly developing atomic weapons. The UN body intends to reopen its debate on Iran next month.
“It is we who should be making demands, not the West,” Khamenei said, “and we should be challenging the oppressors in areas like human rights, the rights of minorities, the fight against terrorism, women’s rights, the ban on weapons of mass destruction and in the sphere of nuclear energy. “The strategic objectives and the general framework of the country’s foreign policy are the same as they were 25 years ago” when the Islamic Republic came into being, he affirmed.
Meanwhile, Iran warned the Iraqi government that it was taking “very seriously” the matter of an Iranian diplomat held hostage in Iraq and threatened with “punishment” by his captors. “Iran is holding the interim government solely responsible” for the safety of Fereydun Jahani, abducted on Aug. 4, government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters.
“We are following this matter, which we are taking very seriously,” he added. A group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq has said it will “punish” Jahani if Iran does not release 500 Iraqis allegedly held since the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88.
Ramezanzadeh repeated that Iran had freed all its prisoners of war, adding, “this file is closed, Iran has said this many, many times and it has been confirmed by international organizations.” The only problem, he said, was of soldiers who had been reported missing. The spokesman said Tehran also hoped to clear up the question of the arrest last week in Baghdad of the Iraq bureau chief of Iran’s state news agency IRNA and two of his Iraqi staff.
He again denied allegations by Iraqi officials that Iran was interfering in Iraq’s internal affairs, saying, “We want security, stability, calm and progress for Iraq because we consider that is also in our national interest and our aim is to help the Iraqi people.”
Ramezanzadeh said the accusations came from former members of Iraq’s ruling Baath party, toppled by US-led invading forces in April last year, and not from true representatives of the Iraqi people.
In another development, the Iranian government voiced harsh opposition to plans by some conservatives on separating the sexes at universities, ISNA reported. “These standpoints sound like those adopted by the Taliban (in Afghanistan),” Ramezanzadeh told ISNA.
Some conservatives in Parliament had raised the issue of stricter laws on the Islamic dress code of women, and separating female from male students at academic venues. Although implemented at schools, on public busses and festivities at public venues, separation of the sexes in universities had so far been exempted from these regulations.
