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Iranian president denies rumor of cutting oil sales

Iran's president has denied telling a newspaper that his government might curtail oil sales if Iran is referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "never had an interview, either oral or written, with the Khaleej Times," the president's office said in a statement late Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the Dubai-based newspaper had reported Ahmadinejad as speaking about last month's resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which warned Iran it would be referred to the UN Security Council unless it allayed fears about its nuclear program.

"If Iran's case is sent to the Security Council, we will respond by many ways, for example, by holding back on oil sales or limiting inspections of our nuclear facilities," Ahmadinejad said, according to the newspaper.

The president's office denied this, saying: "Such a claim is nothing more than a mere fabrication."

The Khaleej Times could not contacted about the denial because of the late hour on Saturday. But its Web site carried the interview without any mention of Ahmadinejad's rebuttal, which was published by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran pumps about 4 million barrels daily, making it the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.

If Iran were to curtail its exports by a substantial amount, it would raise the price of oil on the world market. But it would also reduce Iran's revenue.

Crude oil exports normally account for about 80 percent of Iran's hard currency income, and last month an oil official projected oil earnings this year at US$43 billion.

Iran has made other threats since the IAEA resolution. Officials have threatened to resume uranium enrichment and to block UN inspections of its nuclear facilities unless the UN nuclear agency stepped back from its resolution. Iran has also threatened to use trade to punish countries that voted for the resolution, and last week the parliament began debating a bill to force the government to scale back cooperation with the IAEA. The newspaper reported Ahmadinejad as saying that Iran's nuclear program was peaceful and it had to be so.

"Our religion prohibits us from having nuclear arms and our religious leader has prohibited it from the point of view of religious law. It's a closed road," he told the Khaleej Times. "I insist we don't need nuclear arms and our laws don't allow us to produce them. We are always acting in accordance with international law."

The president criticized the resolution and foreign countries, however, for trying to impose their will on Iran and said he was determined to fight for Iran's rights to a nuclear fuel supply. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes. The US and some other countries suspect Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons.

"I said I'll do every thing in order to uphold our national interest," Ahmadinejad said of his campaign promises ahead of the June presidential election. "One of these things is that we will have access to the nuclear supply process. We don't want to be at war with the world, as you see they're trying to impose their will on our country. I have no worries about all that. We will have peace, prosperity and the nuclear supply cycle."

The IAEA resolution ordered Iran to ratify an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in its parliament, suspend all uranium enrichment activities, including uranium conversion, abandon the construction of a heavy water nuclear reactor and grant access to certain locations and documents.

The additional protocol requires any signatory country to report all its nuclear facilities to the IAEA and allow short-noticed intrusive inspections. Iran already allows this but parliament has not yet ratified the additional protocol.
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