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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Iran was ready to talk about mutual concerns with the international community in a bid to end "misunderstandings" over its disputed nuclear issue. "Iran will talk about mutual concerns and the ways to resolve misunderstandings in the international arena, but we will never negotiate on our legal rights," said Ahmadinejad in a speech to a large crowd in Qazvin province west of Tehran, which was aired by state television. "Any negotiations on Iran's nuclear issue must take place in a fair atmosphere," he said, adding "If the international community thinks it can use a stick to threat the Iranian nation and negotiate at the same time, it should understand that the Iranian people will never accept this." Ahmadinejad made the statement as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presented Tehran on Tuesday with a new package of incentives and penalties aimed to solve the current standoff over Iran's nuclear program. The five permanent members-- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China-- plus Germany have agreed on the package which offers Iran incentives including direct US talks if Tehran halts uranium enrichment activities. Report: enrichment work resumed Iran has resumed its controversial uranium enrichment activities, Austria Press Agency (APA) quoted an IAEA report as saying on Thursday. The cooperation between the Iranian government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was "insufficient," according to the secret report, submitted to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors by Mohammed El Baradei, chief of the UN watchdog. Iran did not make any reactions to the recent inquiries put forward by the IAEA, said the report. The report also indicated that Iran had resumed feeding uranium gas into 164 centrifuges in Natanz on Tuesday, and was setting up more cascades of centrifuge enrichment machines. Moreover, Iran disallowed the IAEA inspectors to install monitoring facilities. Uranium enrichment activities refers to the process of transforming the raw material of uranium hexafluoride gas, or "UF6," into enriched uranium through centrifuges. The enriched uranium, with different concentrations, can be used for civil nuclear purposes as well as for producing nuclear weapons. The board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog is set to discuss the report next Monday. (Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2006) |
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