May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today insisted his country has the right to develop atomic energy, saying any aggressor who tries to thwart the nuclear program will be faced with a “historic slap.''
“Nuclear energy is a right that people of Iran shout every day and will stand by it,'' Ahmadinejad said in a speech to supporters televised live from the southwestern town of Khorramshahr, on the border with Iraq in Khuzestan province.
Any “aggression to the right of Iranian people will be faced with a lasting and historic slap,'' he said on the anniversary of Khorramshahr's 1982 liberation from Iraqi forces. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which ended in 1988 and left more than 1 million dead.
Iran is under increasing pressure from the U.S. and Europe to abandon its nuclear program. The United Nations Security Council's five permanent members -- France, China, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. -- plus Germany met in London today to discuss trade and technology incentives offered by the three European nations to encourage Iran to stop enriching uranium.
Russia and China, both with economic ties to Iran, have so far resisted using the threat of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, while the EU -- backed by the U.S. -- is pushing for them should diplomacy fail.
Reactor or Bomb
The U.S. Embassy in London canceled a briefing to be given by Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, today. Earlier, U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters that the meetings in London would be “key,'' though they were unlikely to finalize anything, according to Agence France-Presse.
Iran's government insists the uranium work, a purification process that can produce fuel for a reactor or a bomb, is intended only to generate electricity. The U.S. accuses Iran, holder of the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves, of “being a central banker of terrorism'' and of using nuclear research as cover for the development of weapons.
Iran has mastered the enrichment process and reached the “peaks of technology,'' as its enemies seek to “plot by creating division among our people, and inciting to despair to prevent us from getting our rights,'' Ahmadinejad said today.
Iran test-fired a missile with a range of 900 miles (1,448 kilometers), the latest of several trials of the country's Shihab-Three weapon, the Associated Press reported, citing unidentified Israeli defense officials. Israel's announcement of the test came during talks in Washington yesterday between U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who expressed concern over Iran's nuclear program, AP said.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel's destruction, last month said Iran will use “the latest technology'' against its enemies.
'Cloud of Uncertainty'
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Iran to “lift the cloud of uncertainty'' over its nuclear program, and said it is “important'' that the Iranians and the European representatives have indicated that they are willing to continue negotiations.
“In my own contacts with the Iranians, I have appealed to them not to reject anything out of hand,'' Annan told journalists during a visit to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
Iran ignored an April 28 non-binding deadline by the UN Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment, claiming it is entitled to carry out the process for peaceful purposes under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which it is a signatory.
Concealing Atomic Research
Inspectors from the UN nuclear organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, discovered in 2003 that Iran had been concealing nuclear research, contravening the treaty. The IAEA's board ordered inspectors to investigate the program and asked Iran to voluntarily stop work on uranium enrichment.
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei may urge the U.S. to accept a limited Iranian uranium enrichment program in exchange for the country abandoning ambitions to produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, diplomats familiar with the agency's policies on Iran said today.
Allowing Iran to run some centrifuges to enrich uranium would guarantee continued IAEA supervision, said the two diplomats, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the subject.
ElBaradei, who last month reported that his agency still can't prove that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes, is in Washington to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Strait of Hormuz
Iran may be able to produce a nuclear bomb by 2010, the International Institute of Strategic Studies estimated today. Iran also is developing the capability to block the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and controls oceangoing traffic to and from the oil-rich Gulf states, the London-based military research organization said.
Mark Fitzpatrick, the IISS's expert on nuclear proliferation, told a briefing in London that Iran “is on the verge'' of having the ability to make an atomic bomb.
Iran is using intermediaries in an effort to get direct talks with the U.S. on the nuclear dispute, the Washington Post reported, citing analysts and diplomats who described the move as an indication the Islamic Republic is easing its anti-American stance.
Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to Bush on May 8 suggesting solutions to reduce conflicts in the world and ease tensions between the two countries that have escalated in the months since Iran's refusal to halt its nuclear program.
Bush dismissed the letter, saying, “It did not answer the main question that the world is asking and that is, 'When will you get rid of your nuclear program?' ''
