Ahmadinejad vows to resist nuclear pressure

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed today to resist pressure from the UN Security Council over his country’s nuclear programme, saying “no power” can take nuclear fuel cycle technology away from Iran.

“Rest assured that the technology to produce nuclear fuel today is in the hands of the youth of this land and no power can take it back from us,” President Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in northern Iran.

His comments came ahead of discussions later today on Iran’s nuclear programme by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which has the power to slap sanctions on Iran if it doesn’t back down in its confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

His defiant comments drew chants of “nuclear energy is our right” from the crowd.

The US and its European allies want Iran to permanently abandon uranium enrichment and all related activities, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel for reactors or materials for a nuclear bomb. Iran denies any intention to build weapons, saying it only wants to produce energy.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – have been considering proposals to pressure Iran to resolve questions about its nuclear programme, including demands that it abandon uranium enrichment.

Ahmadinejad said Iraq would not abandon its drive to produce nuclear fuel because of what he called harsh statements and pressures by the US and its allies.

“They should be assured that through propaganda, political pressures and games they play nowadays such as issuing statements, making angry gestures…can’t deny the Iranian nation from pursuing its path,” he told the crowd gathered in the northern town of Gorgan.

The US and its allies, he said, are angry because Iran has made progress in its nuclear programme.

“Today, unfortunately, a few big powers want, through coercion and bullying, to prevent progress of nations…They are really angry that this great nation is gaining access to the peaks of progress and development.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday warned that Iran’s government is taking the country in the “wrong direction” and repressing its own people and pursuing confrontation abroad.

Britain, France, Germany and the US successfully pressed the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report Iran to the Security Council last week after Tehran resumed nuclear research and small-scale uranium enrichment.

Iran has insisted it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. It restarted research-scale uranium enrichment last month, two years after voluntarily freezing the programme during talks with Germany, Britain and France.

It also has threatened to start large-scale uranium enrichment if the council imposes any sanctions on the country. Iran only has an experimental nuclear research programme and scientists say the nation is months away from resolving technical problems to launch large-scale uranium enrichment.

Last week, Iran offered what it called a “final proposal” to agree to suspend large-scale enrichment temporarily in return for IAEA recognition of its right to continue research-scale enrichment.