Iran offers atomic know-how to Islamic states

Reuters:

Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with other Islamic countries, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"The Islamic Republic never seeks weapons of mass destruction and with respect to the needs of Islamic countries, we are ready to transfer nuclear know-how to these countries," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. READ MORE

Washington accuses Iran of secretly building atomic weapons and the comments are likely to heighten Western concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. They were made during a meeting with Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, IRNA said.

Seeking to avert referral of its nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions on Tehran, Iran is engaged in intense lobbying for support from non-aligned countries at the U.N. summit.

Washington and its allies say Iran has failed to provide full and timely information about its nuclear programme and are alarmed that Tehran last month broke U.N. seals at a uranium processing facility.

Iran insists it has every right as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop a full atomic programme to generate electricity.

"We have firmly decided to use this technology for peaceful purposes within the framework of the NPT, international regulations and cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.