Pakistan silent on Iran nuclear work

Bangkok Post:

A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad unveiled his country's capability to enrich uranium, Pakistan on Wednesday kept quiet in an apparent bid to watch the evolving situation and international reactions on the issue.

"We have no comments to offer on the Iranian President's announcement," foreign ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. READ MORE

Pakistan has been opposing use of force or military action against Iran in the interest of "regional stability."

Aslam told reporters in Islamabad last Monday that any action against Iran would plunge the entire region into instability.

Ahmadinejad on Tuesday announced in Teheran that his country's scientists had successfully enriched uranium at the Natanz plant in central Iran

"This is a historic achievement for the Iranian nation and our scientists have now reached the height of science and technology," the president said.

The move came in defiance of the March 29 demand by the UN Security Council that Iran suspend uranium enrichment efforts within 30 days to ease international concerns that it is trying to build nuclear weapons.

But Iranian officials Tuesday repeated past assurances that they would only use the enriched uranium to fuel the country's nuclear power plants that are being constructed.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran was "moving in the wrong direction."

Russia also joined the United States and other members of the international community in criticising Iran's announcement and asked its leadership to abstain from breaching the United Nations resolution on Iran's nuclear programme.