Iran ex-president defends nuclear program, says no desire to build atomic bomb
link
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami defended his nation’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear power, insisting that the Islamic republic had no desire to build an atomic bomb. ‘We are seeking a peaceful kind of use of nuclear technology,’ Khatami told a seminar at the United Nations University in Tokyo, speaking through a translator. ‘Iran doesn’t want to get access to nuclear weapons. Not at all. We do not need them,’ said Khatami, a reformist who was president from 1997 to 2005 and has since been replaced by the more hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khatami reiterated Tehran’s view that it has ‘the legitimate right’ to produce energy from nuclear technology as other countries do. ‘If they are very much concerned about nuclear weapons, we are a member of NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty) and we have signed the protocol,’ said Khatami, who was in Japan for a conference on religion and peace in Kyoto. Khatami yesterday met with Japanese Prime Minister Juniciro Koizumi and warned against possible UN sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, foreign ministry officials said. Western nations have reacted coolly to Iran’s response to an offer by the five permanent Security Council members and Germany of incentives in return for a halt to uranium enrichment. The standoff over Iran’s nuclear program has to be resolved through negotiations, Khatami told Koizumi. Koizumi said Japan — a major importer of Iranian oil — wants Tehran to take a cooperative stance toward the international community and to suspend uranium enrichment. The Security Council adopted a resolution last month giving Iran until August 31 to freeze its uranium enrichment programme or face possible sanctions.
