Iran will not retreat 'one iota' over nuclear plans
Iran will not retreat one iota on its uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, signalling there would be no concessions in talks with the head of the UN nuclear agency who arrived to head off a confrontation with the Security Council.
“We have not seen diversion of nuclear material for weapons purposes, but the picture is still hazy and not very clear,” the UN nuclear chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, told reporters after talks with Iran’s nuclear officials.
ElBaradei said he had discussed with the Iranians the UN request for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment for a period of time until questions over its nuclear programme had been resolved.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told the same press conference that such moves were not acceptable.
“Such proposals are not very important ones,” he said.
Hours earlier, President Ahmadinejad had said enrichment was an Iranian red line in the talks with the United Nations. “We won’t hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation (to enrich uranium) and no one has the right to retreat, even one iota.”
