Iran envoy rejects enrichment suspension

Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran - On the eve of talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Iran's nuclear negotiator Wednesday rejected the possibility of Iran suspending its uranium enrichment program.

"Suspension is not the right solution for solving Iran's nuclear issue," the state news agency quoted Ali Larijani as saying before he left for Spain. "Past experiences have shown that suspension is not acceptable, at all."

Larijani's talks with the EU's Javier Solana are meant to explore whether there is room to resume negotiations over Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the United States and the EU fear is being used to make weapons. Iran says its only purpose is generating electricity.

The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, which can produce both reactor fuel and — at higher levels — weapons-grade material. The Security Council first imposed sanctions on Iran on Dec. 23 for rejecting the demands, and then modestly increased them in March.

The council is preparing to debate a third round of punitive measures against Iran.

"If Iran is supposed to suspend its nuclear activities, there will be no issue for talks," said Larijani, adding that the U.N. and U.S. demand for uranium enrichment suspension was "unprincipled."

Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, extolled Iran's ability to produce army equipment, saying Iran was so powerful, no country would dare attack it.

"We have passed our point of vulnerability," Ahmadinejad told state television during a visit to an Iranian defensive equipment exhibition. "This means nobody would dare stage a military assault against our nation."

"I don't think there is an item that we cannot produce, if we need it," he said.

Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers and missiles, the government has said. In early 2005, Iran announced it had also begun producing torpedoes.

Larijani said Iran was prepared to remove the West's concerns over its nuclear program. "We want to continue our peaceful nuclear program, but others should have no concerns about it as well."

It was not clear if Larijani's comment signaled Iran would take concrete steps to alleviate U.N. nuclear concerns — such as giving more leeway to inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, whose monitoring of Iranian nuclear plants was curtailed by Tehran after the latest round of Security Council sanctions.

Iran temporarily suspended enrichment under a previous deal with the European Union but that pact collapsed in 2005 and Tehran resumed the work.

Solana is empowered by the world's major powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany as well as the EU — to explore the scope for formal negotiations on a package of economic, technological and political initiatives if Iran suspends enrichment.