Atomic Work Will Go Ahead

Reuters:

Iran will not be intimidated by international threats to abandon its nuclear program, which the West fears is a front for covert bomb-making, said former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday.

Rafsanjani called on the western countries to stop making a fuss over Iran's atomic activities, which he said was only to meet the Islamic state's energy needs and not to build bombs.

Iran faces mounting international pressure after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Tehran had resumed uranium conversion at Isfahan last month, ending a freeze of sensitive nuclear work under a November 2004 deal with France, Britain and Germany.

"Iran is determined to use peaceful nuclear technology and no intimidation or threat can make us give it up," Rafsanjani told Friday prayer worshippers at Tehran University.

Washington and the EU that suspect Iran could use its nuclear power program to develop the capability to produce atomic weapons, are trying to reach a broad consensus for sending Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's governing board meet on September 19 in Vienna to discuss Iran's nuclear program.

Rafsanjani called on the United States and the Europeans to avoid adopting "illogical" measures at the IAEA meeting.

"If they make immature decisions or implement their threats, Iran will not be the only country to be harmed," he said in a sermon broadcast live on state radio. READ MORE

"It is our sovereign right to obtain atomic technology for peaceful purposes."

Russia, which is helping build a nuclear plant in Iran, said on Monday it opposed reporting Tehran to the council. It has a veto on the council and could block any move to sanctions.

Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council which arbitrates on legislative disputes, accused the United States of trying to create a negative atmosphere about Iran.

"The world knows that we have nothing to hide. But Americans are making a fuss over it," Rafsanjani told worshippers who chanted "death to America."

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attending a U.N. meeting in New York next week, is expected to present a new proposal to resolve Iran's nuclear stand-off with the West.