TEHRAN, 10 October 2005 — Washington is not in a position to go to war against Tehran and its pressure over the country’s disputed nuclear program is nothing more than “intimidation”, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said yesterday.
“There will not be a war ahead of us. The situation in America does not allow them to create new fronts,” Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.
“War with Iran is hard for them, so they want to intimidate us into committing suicide,” he added, referring to Western efforts to make Tehran abandon work on the sensitive nuclear fuel cycle.
Tehran also warned Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed El-Baradei not to let the policies of the UN atomic watchdog be steered by superpowers that want Tehran hauled before the UN Security Council.
Iran was slow to react to the awarding of this year’s peace prize to El-Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which he heads. The IAEA has been investigating US charges that Tehran is seeking nuclear arms.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, who declined to comment when El-Baradei won the award on Friday, offered guarded praise in Iran’s first official response. “We congratulate Mr. El-Baradei ... but he should try not to let the IAEA fall into the hands of the great powers,” he told a news conference. The IAEA has been investigating Iran’s nuclear program for almost three years and last month its 35-member board of governors passed a resolution which could see Tehran’s case referred to the UN Security Council for sanctions.
Iran also hit back at US allegations it is working on nuclear warhead designs, dismissing the latest claims as a “lie”.
“One word: It’s a lie. It needs no more explanation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
Diplomats and analysts at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AFP the US has briefed key nations on intelligence it says shows Iranian atomic weapons work.
