Iran said yesterday it would not accept any limitations on its right to master "peaceful" nuclear technology, amid fresh calls at the UN nuclear watchdog for it to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also announced that the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had issued an edict banning the use of nuclear weapons, pledging that nobody in Iran was seeking the bomb.
When asked if Iran had offered concessions on building nuclear centrifuge components during talks with the European Union, he said: "Nothing official from the Islamic republic has been said or announced in this regard so far."
"We have more important issues and this is a marginal issue," Asefi told reporters.
"If the Europeans and the international community want assurances that nuclear technology will be used for peaceful purposes, we are ready to give assurances within the framework of the additional protocol," he said.
"But if the issue is that we cannot master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, that is out of the question because we have already reached that point," he asserted.
But it was not clear if Asefi was referring to Iran's attitude to a draft resolution due to be considered by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is due Monday to resume its discussions on Iran.
Iran is accused by the US of trying secretly to develop nuclear weapons, but the clerical regime insists it is merely trying to generate electricity.
"We are ready to give assurances, because from the beginning we said using nuclear weapons is haram [forbidden]. The supreme leader has issued a fatwa on this. No group in this country is thinking of acquiring nuclear weapons," Asefi said.
No further details on Khamenei's purported edict were immediately available.
Diplomats at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna said Saturday that Britain, France and Germany were ready to set a November deadline for Iran to ally suspicions it is secretly making nuclear weapons.
The draft resolution calls on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment related activities and sets a November deadline for Iran to ally suspicions it is secretly making nuclear weapons.
The draft brings the three countries -- which have been trying to broker Iranian cooperation with the IAEA -- closer to the US hard line.
The US wants Iran referred to the UN Security Council, but Asefi predicted this would not happen during the week.
"Iran's dossier will not be sent to the UN Security Council because there is no reason for it," he said.
RSS