Iran Angrily Defends Nuclear Program

Iranian President Ahmadinejad speaking at the United Nations at a non-proliferation conference in New York. His speech was attacked by Secretary of State Clinton on behalf of U.S. imperialism.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

May 3, 2010

Iran Wednesday, May 05, 2010
06:23 Mecca time, 03:23 GMT

Iran: Politics blocks nuclear talks

The Iranian president has said internal politics both within Iran and the United States is making it difficult to reach a deal on the country's nuclear programme.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on the sidelines of a UN summit in New York reviewing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he and Barack Obama would have to refrain from "acting too hastily" to achieve progress.

Ahmadinejad said the November 2009 resolution "presented to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] against Iran in the presence of Mr Obama [US president] was a very negative, hasty action that had very negative repercussions in Iran".

"[The] resolution was not based on any legal or lawful framework but surely a political, politicised act ... It reduced public confidence in the [negotiation] process in Iran."

The resolution noted with "serious concern" that Iran had constructed a uranium enrichment facility at Qom in breach of its obligations to suspend all enrichment.

It added that Tehran's failure to notify the IAEA of the new facility until September 2009 was also inconsistent with Iran's obligations.

'Tremendous pressure'

Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American writer, said Obama was under immense pressure to serve interest groups with respect to Iran's nuclear programme.

"I think a lot of Iranians would agree [with Ahmadinejad] - even on the reform side - that the US and Barack Obama, in particular, is under tremendous pressure by various interest groups to not deal with Iran or to deal with Iran differently," Majd told Al Jazeera.

He said there were those telling the president "not to negotiate because negotiation is fruitless in the minds of many - right-wing Americans, neocons and the Israeli lobby. There is all kinds of different areas where Obama has to be very careful".

Ahmadinejad took centre stage at the opening of the month-long debate on how to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

He set a defiant tone at the conference on Monday, saying that the US "has never respected any of its commitments" on nuclear weapons.

Washington, he said, had offered not "a single credible proof" to back claims that his country was developing nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it is enriching uranium for purposes of developing nuclear energy for civilian use, but the West suspects it is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb.

Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the summit, said: "We've seen sympathies for comments from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from countries who themselves are pursuing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and want to develop their nuclear reactors."

But she added that the US, which released previously classified statistics on the size of its nuclear arsenal as Ahmadinejad delivered his speech, had been praised for the move.

The US has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile, the defence department disclosed on Monday.

UN Security Council powers met on Tuesday to discuss ways to punish Tehran as a final document detailing ways to achieve goals of checking the spread of nuclear weapons was being drafted.

US officials have said they will be looking to isolate Iran and to produce an unofficial document calling for stricter enforcement of the NPT, which requires signatories to abandon nuclear weapons.

The document could be signed by the overwhelming majority of signatory countries, but because it requires a consensus of all parties - including Iran - it would be highly unlikely to censure Tehran and could block consensus, analysts said.

Our correspondent added that the "document ... calls on Israel to sign up and join the NPT. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has not confirmed or denied their existence".

"By signing up to the NPT, they would be required to do that. Of course, other countries as well are being asked to do that - India and Pakistan are also nuclear states who have not joined the NPT," she said.

Sharp criticism

Ahmadinejad, who accused the US of not only using nuclear weapons but also threatening to use them, drew sharp criticism from Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.

She told delegates Iran was "flouting the rules" of the nonproliferation treaty with its suspect uranium enrichment programme.

'Better way' on Iran urged

"I hope that we can reach agreement in the Security Council on tough new sanctions," Clinton told reporters.

"I believe that is the only way to catch Iran's attention."

The NPT is formally reviewed every five years at a meeting of all 189 treaty members - all the world's nations except India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, all of which either have confirmed or are believed to have nuclear weapons.

Tehran has refused to abandon its enrichment programme and now faces the prospect of UN-backed sanctions as a result of its defiance in the face of international pressure.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said over the weekend that more progress needs to be made in disarmament efforts.

Those efforts have been boosted by new pledges from the US and Russia in recent months.

Ban also said Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programmes were "of serious concern to global efforts to curb nuclear proliferation".

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies


Angrily Defends Nuclear Program

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
New York Times

UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Iran used the United Nations General Assembly’s famous green marble podium on Monday to trade punches over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, adding sudden drama to the normally staid opening of the international conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the only head of state attending a meeting usually left to foreign ministers, defiantly sought to rebuff accusations that Iran was a nuclear outlaw by going on the offensive against the United States.

The United States, represented by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, accused Iran of trying to create a smokescreen to hide its own violations and said Tehran should not be allowed to try to undermine a broad international consensus to strengthen the 40-year-old treaty.

The treaty is viewed as successful over all in dissuading countries from developing nuclear weapons, but is seen as under threat as more nations express an interest in starting nuclear programs.

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said that expanding interest as well as new problems like possible nuclear terrorism made the treaty more important than ever. “The nuclear threat remains real,” Mr. Ban said. “It has evolved in new and varied forms.”

In his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad said that all nuclear powers tried to intimidate countries that had no nuclear weapons, but he called the United States the “main suspect” in fostering a nuclear arms race. It has engendered worldwide hatred for being the first and only state to use a nuclear bomb, he said.

As Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke, members of delegations from a number of countries, including the United States and many European Union members, walked out of the General Assembly. The hall was about one-third full during his 35-minute address.

The Iranian president said the United States and its allies had failed to provide a “single credible proof” of allegations that Tehran was hiding an attempt to develop a nuclear bomb of its own,. The Islamic republic had already accepted a compromise deal over enriching uranium for a research reactor, he said.

In opening the conference, Mr. Ban urged Iran to prove that its nuclear program was solely for peaceful purposes and to accept a compromise deal offered to Tehran last fall. Iran is facing a fourth round of Security Council sanctions that are being negotiated separately.

Under the terms of last fall’s deal, Iran would send 1,200 kilograms, or more than 2,600 pounds, of enriched uranium to Russia and then to France for refinement into fuel rods for its research reactor in Tehran, which is used for medical purposes.

Though it would not resolve the issue of a suspected military program, the deal was seen as a confidence-building measure.

Western nations negotiating with Iran say that it has demanded, at different times, that the refinement take place on Iranian soil, or that the uranium be refined in smaller increments. Their interest in the deal is waning as Iran enriches increasing amounts of uranium. Its supply is now thought to be more than 2,100 kilograms, or about 4,600 pounds, enough for two bombs.

Mrs. Clinton noted that Tehran had never signaled to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was ready to accept any proposal involving its research reactor. “Iran has a history of making confusing, contradictory and inaccurate statements designed to convey the impression that it has adopted a flexible attitude toward the proposal,” she told a news conference.

In her speech, Mrs. Clinton accused Iran of jeopardizing the nonproliferation treaty by defying repeated calls from the Security Council and the atomic energy agency to be more transparent about its program. “That is why it is facing increasing isolation and pressure from the international community,” she said.

Canada’s foreign minister, Lawrence Cannon, dismissed Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech as a “publicity stunt.” He and other foreign ministers stressed that they did not want the issue of Iran to hijack the conference.

Mr. Ban emphasized a few central issues that he said should be the focus of conference negotiations expected to last until the end of May: more nuclear weapons cuts, greater openness in national nuclear programs, an effort to get the three nations outside the treaty — India, Pakistan and Israel — to sign it, and the establishment of a zone in the Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

Mrs. Clinton said the United States wanted to strengthen the measures facing any country that tries to withdraw from the treaty, as North Korea did in 2003. The country has since declare that it carried out two nuclear tests.

The conference should consider automatic penalties for violating agreements on safeguards, Mrs. Clinton said, like suspending international technical cooperation, and using of financial and legal tools “to disrupt illicit proliferation networks.”

To bolster President Obama’s argument that the United States is fulfilling its obligations to reduce the American arsenal, the Pentagon on Monday declassified statistics showing that the United States now possesses 5,113 nuclear weapons, down 84 percent from its peak of 31,255 in 1967, at the height of the cold war.

The statistics’ broad outlines have been known, in general terms, for many years. The Pentagon issued gross numbers on Monday, deliberately lumping together deployed weapons, those in storage and “inactive”’ warheads. The figures released for the current stockpile, a senior official said, do not include several thousand retired weapons awaiting complete dismantlement.

American officials have been playing down prospects for any sweeping change emerging from the conference, suggesting that the greatest expected pressure on Tehran will be if a majority of countries endorse the treaty and there is some condemnation of Iran, even if it is rejected by a few “outliers” and does not make it into the final document.

Although Israel does not take part in the nonproliferation treaty, its arsenal, estimated at 100 to 200 warheads, has overshadowed the conferences in recent years. Egypt and other non-nuclear nations have refused to endorse stricter inspections and other global measures as long as Israel remains outside the treaty.

A compromise worked out in 1995 called for a special conference on creating a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, but it has never been convened. Egypt is again demanding that gathering. The United States position has been that such a treaty can be worked out only after a comprehensive Middle East peace plan.

David E. Sanger contributed reporting from New York.