Iran leader keeps nuclear power plan in sights

PRESIDENT-ELECT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed yesterday to pursue a peaceful nuclear program - an effort the US maintains is really a cover for trying to build bombs - and said his government will not be an extremist one.

Mr Ahmadinejad also said Iran did not need the United States to help it become more self-reliant.

His comments came as Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld criticised Friday’s vote, in which the ultraconservative former Tehran mayor steamrolled former President Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, as a “mock election”. Mr Rumsfeld said more than 1,000 potential candidates, including all women, were disqualified from running by the country’s hard-line Guardian Council.

“He is no friend of democracy,” Rumsfeld said. “He is a person who is very much supportive of the current ayatollahs, who are telling the people of that country how to live their lives, and my guess is over time the young people and women will find him as well as his masters unacceptable.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also said yesterday his nation, which considers Iran one of its greatest enemies, also believes the election was undemocratic.

One of the most contentious issues between Tehran and Washington is Iran’s nuclear program. Washington accuses Iran of seeking to build weapons, while Tehran says its program is for generating electricity.

“Iran’s peaceful technology is the outcome of the scientific achievements of Iran’s youth. We need the peaceful nuclear technology for energy, medical and agricultural purposes and our scientific progress,” Mr Ahmadinejad said,

He also said Iran’s decision would not change. Tehran’s nearly 20-year-old atomic program was revealed in 2002. Iran suspended all uranium enrichment-related activities in November to avoid having its nuclear program referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Uranium, enriched to low levels, has energy uses, while highly enriched uranium can be used in bombs. France, Britain and Germany have been negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program, offering economic incentives in the hope of persuading the country to permanently halt uranium enrichment.

Last week, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said it would take many years for Iran to achieve the capability to produce highly-enriched uranium needed for an atomic bomb.

Mr Ahmadinejad said the Europeans must implement their commitments if they want trust to be established.