President Ahmadinejad celebrated the 28th anniversary of Iran’s
Islamic Revolution yesterday by defiantly vowing to pursue his
country’s nuclear programme.
But he confounded expectations that he would unveil new developments
on the nuclear front that would have stoked tensions with the
West. Analysts saw it as a sign that the establishment in Tehran
was reining in the firebrand leader. In Germany, Iran’s
top nuclear negotiator sought to assure the world that Tehran
wanted to ease regional tensions and that its nuclear programme
was not a threat to Israel.
Ali Larijani told a meeting of the world’s senior security
officials that Iran wanted to return to negotiations to reach
an agreement within three weeks. “That Iran is willing to
threaten Israel is wrong,” he told the Munich Conference
on Security Policy. “If we are conducting nuclear research
and development we are no threat to Israel. We have no intention
of aggression against any country.” His words were a far
cry from Mr Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be “wiped
off the map”.
Mr Ahmadinejad told a crowd in Tehran that Iran would never surrender
to the West’s key demand to stop enriching uranium. But
he also expressed readiness to negotiate an end to the nuclear
crisis.
There had been expectations that Mr Ahmadinejad would use the
anniversary to declare that Iran had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges
at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.
Instead he promised news of “great progress” by April
9. It was seen as evidence that pragmatists in the Iranian establishment
had persuaded him against provoking the West, weeks after President
Bush sent a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf. As Mr Ahmadinejad
spoke, the huge crowd in Azadi square, Tehran, chanted slogans
such as “Death to America” and “Nuclear energy
is our inalienable right”.
A UN Security Council resolution for Iran to halt uranium enrichment
or face further sanctions expires in nine days. Iran is relying
on Russia to shield it from further sanctions, but President Putin
said he failed to understand why Iran had not answered all the
questions about its nuclear programme from the UN’s nuclear
watchdog.
Iran was ready for concessions such as running centrifuges that
enrich uranium only to 4 per cent, Mr Larijani told a German newspaper.
Uranium must be enriched to at least 80 per cent for nuclear bombs.
Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said after meeting
Mr Larijani that no deal had been reached but possible solutions
were being explored.
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