Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani on Saturday told former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder it was impossible to deprive Tehran of nuclear technology for peaceful uses.
“Iran has observed international regulations and depriving Iran of nuclear technology and energy for peaceful purposes is impossible,” Larijani told Schroeder during a meeting in Tehran.
The latest remarks by Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator for Iran, came after the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday said Iran is continuing to enrich uranium, potentially a stage in making an atomic bomb, but has slowed down the expansion of its enrichment activities.
Tehran and Western powers are at loggerheads over Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The West suspects the program is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Schroeder, who is on an unofficial visit to Iran, met top officials of the Islamic republic, including hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
During his meeting with Larijani, the former chancellor praised Iran’s “positive and constructive role in Afghanistan.”
Later during a meeting with former Iranian president Akber Hashemi Rafsanjani, he said that without “US and Iran cooperating” current regional issues will not be solved.
Schroeder also said it was wrong to have ignored and isolated Palestinian militant group Hamas over the past years while solving the regional issues.
“It is necessary to have this group join regional solutions,” he said.
Last month, Israel fought a 22-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has long accused Iran of arming militants in Gaza, a claim Tehran denies even though it says it offers moral support to Hamas.
Iran and in particular Ahmadinejad have repeatedly launched tirades against Israel and even termed the Holocaust as a “myth.”
In a speech earlier on Saturday at the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Schroeder criticised Ahmadinejad for doubting the Holocaust.
The Holocaust is a “historical fact” and there is no sense in denying such an “unparalleled crime,” he said.
Borna news agency said Schroeder criticized Ahmadinejad who has stirred global outrage with his anti-Israel stance.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense