Sunday, September 18 2005 15:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: Declaring that it has an 'inalienable' right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Iran has firmly rejected the US-EU demand to stop enriching uranium and offered to engage public and private sectors of other nations in its programme.

Addressing the UN General Assembly yesterday (Sept 17, 2005), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted that its nuclear programme was for only peaceful purposes, was legal and did not violate the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Iranian leader asked the UN General Assembly to set up a special committee to compile a report and draw up practical strategies for complete nuclear disarmament.

He sharply attacked the US, describing it as an aggressor and accusing it of violating nuclear treaties by continuing to refine its nuclear weapons, using depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, practicing nuclear apartheid and trying to bully others.

At a press conference immediately after his address to the 191-member assembly, he was asked to comment on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remark in New York on Friday that another nuclear power in the neighborhood was not desirable and that Iran should fulfil its international obligations.

Ahmadijnejad said Iran has repeatedly made it clear its programme is for only peaceful purposes and that it is working under guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But he also made it clear that Tehran would never give up, what he called, its 'inalienable' right to use nuclear energy for producing power, asserting that Iranians were not cowards and would not bow before pressure.

Iran, he said, did not want to be put in a position in which it is dependent on others for nuclear fuel.

He offered in a 'serious partnership' with private & public sectors

To allay the suspicions of the Western powers, Ahmadinejad offered to engage in a 'serious partnership' with private and public sectors of other countries in the implementation of its uranium enrichment programme and mentioned South Africa in this context.

But immediate reaction of the Western diplomats was not positive who said Tehran could not be trusted, pointing out that it had carried out its enrichment programme without disclosing it IAEA. However, when the idea was proposed earlier, the Western powers had rejected it.

Addressing the Assembly just hours earlier, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blasted Iran describing it as 'leading sponsor of terrorism' and asked it to 'abandon forever' its plans for nuclear weapons capability.

She also asked the UN to get tough with Iran, saying meeting the 'challenges like that of Iran' is the fundamental test for the United Nations.

But Rice's statements had little effect on Ahmadjinejad who stuck to his position, questioned Washington's sincerity and said the US was playing politics with the issue.

The Iranian President's address came only 48 hours before the meeting of IAEA where the US and Europeans could press for remitting the issue of Iranian uranium enrichment to the Security Council which is the only UN body authorized by the Charter to impose sanctions. But as of yesterday, diplomats said that Washington did not have votes in the IAEA board to get its proposal for reference to the Council through.

Ahmadijnejad's speech was closely watched with some diplomats expecting that he might offer some compromise but after the address and the press conference, which was on similar lines, they said the US could use his remarks to press other members of the board to agree to reference being made to the Council.

At the press conference, the Iranian leader was firm, clear and unambiguous and left no doubt that he would not budge from the position he has taken.

Asked why Iran needed nuclear power when it has huge reserve of oil and gas, he said eventually the oil would run out and argued that even countries, which had much, more oil than Iran, were also using nuclear power.

In his much-awaited address, Ahmadijnejad also demanded that the United Nations appoint a committee to investigate who gave nuclear weapons technology to Israel.

Replying to a question, he pointed to the record of his country, saying it did not use chemical weapons against Iraq even when Baghdad, during the Saddam Hussein regime, has used them against it.

When told that the West doubted Iran's intention, he said they should go by the record and not by intentions and repeated that Tehran would not use the programme to produce nuclear weapons.

Accusing Western countries of using their power and wealth to intimidate other nations, he said they do so while portraying themselves as defenders of freedom, democracy and human rights.