Ahmadinejad says Iran will not suspend uranium enrichment

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran would not halt sensitive nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at making bombs and brushed aside threats of more sanctions.

Ahmadinejad, who is due to attend the UN’s general assembly debate next week, also said he was willing to meet with both US presidential candidates while in New York.

“We are ready for talks that are completely free and in front of the media and at the site of the United Nations with America’s presidential candidates,” he told a news conference.

Dealing with Iran has become an issue in the November US presidential election campaign, with Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain sparring over Obama’s stated readiness to talk to Ahmadinejad and other US adversaries if elected.

Ahmadinejad has previously expressed willingness to hold direct talks with US president George W Bush, but Washington says Tehran must first suspend uranium enrichment before the two sides can sit down and talk about nuclear and other issues.

Major powers have offered a package of trade and other incentives if the Islamic Republic stops enriching uranium, a process the West believes Iran is seeking to master to build nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the charge.

Ahmadinejad made clear that Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, had no plans to back down in the dispute. “Whatever they do, Iran will continue its activities. Sanctions are not important. The era of (uranium enrichment) suspension has ended.”

The United States, Britain and France this week vowed to seek harsher sanctions on Tehran over its defiance of UN demands for full disclosure and a halt to enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes.

Their calls came after the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on Monday that Iranian stonewalling had brought to a standstill its investigation into whether Iran had covertly researched ways to make an atom bomb.

Ahmadinejad said the IAEA report had confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear work and that Tehran had co-operated with the Vienna-based UN agency with “fulltransparency”.