Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a US television interview on Thursday that Tehran had no need of nuclear arms, but did not explicitly rule out that Iran would acquire them.
Ahmadinejad’s remarks on NBC News appeared to dampen prospects for success at a meeting in two weeks between Iran and six world powers, including the US, which have demanded Tehran halt its uranium enrichment program.
“We have always believed in talking, in negotiation. That is our logic, nothing has changed,” Ahmadinejad said in excerpts of an interview aired Thursday night on NBC television.
But, according to other remarks quoted on NBC’s Web site, Ahmadinejad said: “If you are talking about the enrichment of uranium for peaceful purposes, this will never be closed down here in Iran.”
He also declined to explicitly rule out Iran’s acquiring a nuclear weapon despite being asked four times to do so.
“Nuclear arms, we believe they belong to the past and the past generation,” he said through an interpreter. “We do not see any need for such weapons.”
When his interviewer suggested that viewers would not be convinced by his answers, he replied: “You can take from that whatever you want Madam.”
Given Ahmadinejad’s public remarks, chances seemed slim for progress at Iran’s talks on Oct. 1 with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, which the EU expects will take place in Turkey.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Iran must answer “head on” concerns about its nuclear program at the meeting, even though Tehran has so far ignored such appeals.
Clinton said the point of the meeting between Iran and the six powers is to test Tehran’s readiness to discuss such concerns.
Washington will be taking its dual track, or carrot-and-stick, approach to the meeting, Clinton said.
The UN Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to freeze its uranium enrichment activities and Washington has threatened to push for new sanctions if engagement with Iran fails.
The six powers, which represent the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — are offering diplomatic, trade and other benefits if Iran cooperates.
The group called for talks with Iran after Tehran handed over a set of proposals for negotiation last week. Washington expressed disappointment with the package of proposals, saying it was “not really responsive to our greatest concern,” which is the nuclear issue, but Moscow said it offered “something to dig into.”
And US President Barack Obama’s administration sees its role in the talks — the first with Iran since a one-off meeting last year under his predecessor George W. Bush — as a fulfillment of its pledge to engage the Islamic Republic.
According to a copy of the proposals obtained and published by US non-profit investigative journalism group, Pro Publica, Iran said it was prepared to hold “comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive negotiations.”
The talks would address nuclear disarmament as well as a global framework for the use of “clean nuclear energy,” according to the document, but it did not address Iran’s own nuclear program.
Iran says its program is for peaceful nuclear energy and denies charges from the US, European powers and Israel that it seeks to build a nuclear weapon under the guise of its enrichment program.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS