Chinese language - Iran to pursue atomic work despite pressure

WORLD / Middle East

Iran to pursue atomic work despite pressure

(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-16 11:43

Iran's president said Tehran would keep up its nuclear activities despite
Western countries' mounting threats and pressures, the student news
agency ISNA reported on Sunday.

Barring a change of heart by Iran, the European Union's 25 foreign
ministers want to agree at a meeting on Tuesday to ask the U.N. Security
Council to impose sanctions, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said on Saturday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran October 13, 2006.
Iran's president said Tehran would keep up its nuclear activities despite
Western countries' mounting threats and pressures, the student news
agency ISNA reported on Sunday. [Reuters]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was defiant at a meeting with a
group of conservative officials on Saturday, saying Iran was determined
to press on with its nuclear work.

"The threats and pressures against Iran's nuclear activities will not
tarnish the will of the Iranian nation to continue its way (of achieving
nuclear technology)," Ahmadinejad said.

"The nation will not be intimidated by the threats and will continue on
its path vigorously," ISNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Iran's case has been sent back to the Security Council after it failed to
halt uranium enrichment, a process the West fears Iran is using to
develop atomic bombs despite Tehran's denials.

Iran has shrugged off the threat of sanctions in the past. Analysts say
the world's fourth largest oil exporter, which is enjoying an oil revenue
windfall, may feel it can cope with the modest penalties likely to be
imposed initially.

Ahmadinejad said the request by Western countries for Iran to suspend
uranium enrichment was illegal.

"If they succeed in imposing their illegal demand on us they will
increase the pressure to impose extra demands," Ahmadinejad said. "By
God's grace they will not be able to stand against the Iranian nation,"
he said.

Iran has proposed forming a consortium for uranium enrichment with other
countries, saying it would be a way for them to monitor its atomic work
to prove it was peaceful.

Iran has said it opposes atomic weapons and, in previous statements, has
called for nuclear disarmament by all countries.

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