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)
