Iran: We won't halt nuclear programme

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran would not give up uranium enrichment but otherwise steered clear of making fiery statements during celebrations on the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The hardline president said he was prepared to negotiate with the international community and his speech fell short of an expected announcement that Iran had started installing 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at its Natanz plant.

Iran had crossed “the arduous passes and stabilised its definite (nuclear) right,” Ahmadinejad told crowds. He said the programme would remain within the limits of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty that bans production of nuclear weapons.

“We are prepared for dialogue but won’t suspend our activities. … The government will defend the rights of the Iranian nation within the framework of the law,” he said.

Ahmadinejad may have tempered his usual firebrand style in view of the United Nations Security Council demand that Iran halts enrichment by a deadline later this month or face additional sanctions.

His relative restraint is also widely believed to show the influence of moderates within the ruling Islamic establishment telling him not to make provocative statements that could heighten tensions between Iran and the West.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said yesterday that Iran posed no threat to Israel, also suggesting the government was trying to project a less aggressive image.

Iran insists the aim of its nuclear programme is to generate electricity but the US and some of its allies fear the Islamic republic wants to create the fissile core of nuclear warheads. They have made halting uranium enrichment the main precondition for holding talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The US added to its accusations against Iran yesterday when a defence chief said top-level Iranian officials were arming Shiite militants in Iraq with sophisticated armour-piercing roadside bombs that have killed more than 170 American troops.

At a security conference in Germany, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said yesterday its nuclear programme was not a threat to Israel or any other nation.

“That Iran is willing to threaten Israel is wrong,” Ali Larijani said. “We pose no threat and if we are conducting nuclear research and development we are no threat to Israel. We have no intention of aggression against any country.”

However, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said he believed Iran was trying to convince the international community that its intentions were benign.

“The fact is that they have failed in this attempt and there is a wall-to-wall consensus that the Iranian nuclear programme is indeed military and aggressive and a threat to world peace,” he said.

Ahmadinejad said Iran’s nuclear technology advances would gradually be made public over the next two months until April 9. He did not explain what would happen on that date, but it marks the one year anniversary of Iran’s announcement that it had enriched uranium for the first time.

The Iranian leader had implied last week that Tehran would announce that it had begun installing a new assembly of 3,000 centrifuges in an underground portion of its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, central Iran.

Iran now has two cascades of 164 centrifuges each that have been operating sporadically at the above-ground portion of the Natanz facility producing small quantities of non-weapons grade enriched uranium, IAEA inspectors say.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog Mohamed El-Baradei welcomed Iran’s willingness to resume negotiations, but said nothing short of “full transparency” on Iran’s part would bring the two sides to the negotiating table.

Ahmadinejad’s comments yesterday were part of a speech that was broadcast live during nationwide rallies marking the anniversary of the revolution.

On February 11 1979, Iran’s imperial armed forces withdrew support for the US-backed monarchy and declared its allegiance to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after a popular peaceful uprising throughout Iran. Khomeini’s followers seized control of the capital and two months later declared Iran an Islamic republic.