IRAN: US nuclear charges rejected, full inspections offered

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is from the Qatar News Agency (QNA)

TEHERAN, Feb 11 2003 (IPS) - Iran’s Foreign Ministry has categorically rejected US charges over its nuclear projects, the official Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reported today.

Iran’s atomic projects are transparent and peaceful and the accusations by Washington are baseless, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told IRNA.

The spokesman was referring to remarks by US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher who had charged that Iran’s mining of uranium was part of an effort to develop an atomic weapons program.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency can inspect Iran’s nuclear projects at any time to clear up doubts, Assefi added.

For his part, the Iranian government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh also rejected the US charges and said there was unlimited permission for IAEA inspections. "We pursue all our nuclear activities on the basis of international regulations and there can be an unlimited IAEA inspection throughout our soil," Ramezanzadeh said.

President Mohammad Khatami announced over the weekend that Tehran intended to harness nuclear energy by producing nuclear fuel rods from uranium deposits in the central part of the country, saying, however, that his country does not seek nuclear weapons.

"President Khatami’s remarks should not be classified as a political statement but just an announcement of a significant scientific and technological achievement of the Iranian nation," the spokesman said.

The spokesman also rejected US charges that Iran has sufficient conventional energy resources and doesn’t need nuclear power.

Iran was definitely in need of new energy sources as the currently available resources such as oil, gas or hydroelectric power would not be sufficient to meet energy demands in the future, Ramezanzadeh said.