TEHERAN - Iran is unfazed by the threat of war or sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme and mounting international pressure has only hardened its resolve, a senior official said on Monday. âThey must understand that such an attitude will only persuade us more to have nuclear technology,â said top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, responding to widespread condemnation of comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad.
âThere wonât be a war. They do not have the means to go to war on two fronts,â Larijani was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA in a reference to the continued hostilities faced by US-led forces in neighbouring Iraq. âIran is a hard target,â insisted Larijani, who was addressing a seminar on nuclear energy. âIf they think they can limit us by oil sanctions or other sanctions, they are wrong. Oil sanctions will only increase the price of oil,â he warned. âIran has not concealed anything,â Larijani insisted. âWe agree that the agency can conduct any kind of inspection to make sure that Iran is not deviating from peaceful nuclear technology.â
But he charged that diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis were being undermined by âa kind of American fascismâ, adding: âI do not consider negotiations the only way for the nuclear issue, although they are the first priorityâ.
A team of IAEA inspectors is currently in Iran as part of the UN watchdogâs two-and-a-half-year-old investigation of its nuclear programme, and another senior Iranian nuclear official said they had made âremarkable progressâ. Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iranâs Atomic Energy Organisation, said Iran had recently submitted documents related to P1 and P2 centrifuges -- devices used to enrich uranium to make fuel but which can also be used to make the core of a weapon.
âSome of the documents will be submitted during the inspections,â he was quoted as saying, adding the IAEA team would be in the country until Wednesday. |