Iran yesterday rejected a European offer aimed at limiting its nuclear fuel activities and warned the US against "playing with fire" in an increasingly bellicose standoff between Tehran and the international community.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi insisted Iran would not give up construction of a heavy-water reactor, which can be used to make nuclear weapons material, in exchange for a light-water reactor offered by the Europeans.
"We welcome such proposals but we will not under any circumstances replace our heavy-water research reactor," Asefi said at a press conference. "We will continue working on our heavy-water reactor," under construction at Arak, southwest of Tehran.
"We have told the Europeans to tell their American allies not to play with fire and the Europeans received that message perfectly well," Asefi said.
Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran to dismantle an enrichment program the US says is part of a covert atomic weapons development, in return for economic and political rewards.
Diplomats said EU negotiators have offered to send a mission to help Tehran obtain a light-water research reactor in what would be the first concrete move towards rewarding it for abandoning uranium enrichment.
But Tehran's stance on the Arak reactor is likely to complicate the European task amid an escalating war of words between Iran and the US over the clerical regime's nuclear activities.
The Europeans say they cannot understand why Iran would want a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor when its whole enrichment program is based on uranium.
Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for civilian energy needs, but the US -- - less than two years on from its invasion of Iraq in March 2003 -- has hinted at the possible use of military force.
However Asefi declared: "We don't take Rice's threats seriously," referring to new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who last week urged European negotiators to take a tough line with Iran and warned Tehran of sanctions if it refuses to renounce its suspected nuclear weapons program.
"Rice and US officials know well Iran's capabilities [of responding]," he added.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported yesterday that the US has been flying surveillance drones over Iran since last year to look for evidence of nuclear weapons programs and probe air defenses.
Citing three US officials with knowledge of the effort, the Post said the small, pilotless planes use radar, video, still photography and air filters designed to pick up traces of nuclear activity to gather details not accessible by satellites.
The paper quoted unidentified Iranian, European and US officials as saying the Iranian government, using Swiss channels in the absence of diplomatic relations with Washington, formally protested the incursions.
It reported that one US official acknowledged that drones were being used but said the Iranian complaint focused on manned military aircraft overflights, which the US denied.
The drones were first spotted by dozens of Iranian civilians in late December, setting off a flurry of local newspaper stories about whether the country was being visited by UFOs.
Word of the drones comes on the heels of stepped-up calls by the Bush administration for Iran to submit to international observation of its nuclear activity to ensure that it is not developing nuclear weapons.
When Iranians living along the Caspian Sea and on the Iraq border began reporting sightings of red flashes in the sky, streaks of green and blue and low lights that disappeared moments after being spotted, Iranian air force commanders concluded they were spy drones, the Post said.
It noted that many Iranian officers were trained more than 25 years ago in the US and are familiar with US tactics.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS