Cleric insists talks can resolve Iran's atomic row

Tehran, Aug 25: Iran is ready to resolve its nuclear dispute with the West through talks but will not yield to growing Western pressure to abandon its atomic activities, influential cleric Ahmad Khatami said today.

''Using the language of pressure to talk to our nation is not a wise and mature move. We will not abandon our right (to nuclear technology),'' Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran, broadcast live on state radio.

The UN Security Council has demanded Iran suspend atomic work by August 31 or face the threat of sanctions. The West says the work is being used to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is meant only for generating power.

Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts -- a clerical body that supervises Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- repeated that any talks to resolve Iran's nuclear issue should be ''fair and logical''.

''Iran has always been ready to hold talks without any pre-conditions,'' he said.

In response to an offer of commercial and technological incentives made by six world powers in early June, Tehran said on Tuesday it was ready to hold talks on its atomic activities.

The United States has called Iran's response insufficient, though a State Department spokesman said yesterday there was still time for Iran to comply with the August 31 deadline. Germany said the reply was unsatisfactory.

Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, also talking to worshippers at Tehran University, said Iran would soon announce a ''nuclear breakthrough''.

''In the nuclear field, we are still undergoing new progresses and new horizons of the scientific achievements, which will be shown soon,'' Elham said, without elaborating.

Iran said last week that its Arak heavy water nuclear reactor would be inaugurated soon. The plant's plutonium by-product can be used to make atomic warheads.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that imposing UN sanctions on Iran would lift already high oil prices to levels that would be unmanageable for industrialised economies.

''Iran has adopted essential measures for the possible economic sanctions ... So we are not worried about it,'' head of Iran's Central Bank Ebrahim Sheibani told the semi-official Mehr news agency today.

Reuters

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