Iran's foreign minister said yesterday the ongoing violence in Iraq meant the US was not in a position to confront the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear program.
"We are trying to find a diplomatic solution for our [nuclear] problem, and the US should be aware that it is not in a position to create another crisis in the region," Manouchehr Mottaki told the official news agency IRNA.
"More than three years has passed since the United States invaded Iraq and after all these years they are now asking for help," he said, implicitly referring to Washington's request for talks with Tehran on the insurgency.
Tensions between Iran and the US are mounting amid Tehran's refusal to submit to a UN Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment work.
The US is now pushing for tough UN action against Iran, with several US press reports also saying that military options were being looked into.
But Iran, which insists its nuclear drive is legal and peaceful, appears confident it can resist sanctions or an attack.
"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures, said on Friday in one of Iran's boldest statements yet.
Also yesterday, Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai (
Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Asqar Soltanieh told Khabar news network that besides the start of the uranium enrichment process, the Chinese official was briefed by Larijani on talks between Iran and IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei held on Thursday in Tehran.
Soltanieh said that the Russians had also been briefed on the latest developments, and the information would be used in tomorrow's talks in Moscow where the US, China and the EU are to hold fresh talks on the Iranian nuclear program.
"Both China and Russia want the nuclear issue to stay within the IAEA, and this is also our demand as we have always acted within the IAEA and NPT framework," he said.
Soltanieh however rejected an instant resumption of the IAEA Additional Protocol -- obliging Iran to allow snap inspections of its nuclear sites -- and said that would require time and more assurances.
also see story:
US planned for Iran attack pre-Iraq invasion
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