TEHRAN, 21 July 2006 — Iran yesterday again rejected international demands to freeze its controversial nuclear program and warned the UN Security Council against choosing a “path of confrontation.” In a statement read on state television, nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani also said Iran would take until Aug. 22 to reply to an international offer of incentives in exchange for a halt of uranium enrichment.
But he also accused the United States, which has lumped Iran into an “axis of evil,” of trying to derail diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.
“According to the adopted plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of atomic energy over the next 20 years, Iran has decided to make some of its own nuclear fuel inside Iran,” said the statement from Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
He said Tehran was “ready to find a diplomatic solution with a suitable calendar for both parties” but issued a warning to the Security Council — currently discussing ways to pressure Iran into freezing enrichment.
“If the path of confrontation is chosen instead of the path of dialogue, and if there is any action to limit the absolute rights of the Iranian people, the Islamic republic will have no choice but to revise its policy,” the statement warned. Iran says it only wants to enrich to the low levels needed to make reactor fuel and that this is a right under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The technology can, however, be extended to make weapons. Iran’s failure to disclose its program for nearly two decades aroused suspicions that it wants weapons and thus brought demands for a suspension.
