Pat Dollard | Young Americans

GENEVA, March 5 (AFP) Mar 05, 2008

Iran will not hold new talks on its nuclear programme after the imposition of fresh sanctions by the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told AFP on Wednesday.

“Negotiations and contradictory actions afterwards are not appropriate. Therefore we believe that for any request for negotiations, first the objectives should be set up,” Mottaki said.

Mottaki slammed the Security Council resolution, which tightened existing sanctions to try to force Iran to give up its programme of uranium enrichment and cooperate further with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Russia and China both supported the resolution, in a change from their usual reticence on the issue.

“We believe that the action taken by the Security Council has been a bullet shot towards the dignity of the Security Council,” Mottaki said.

“There is no difference between the members of the Security Council,” he added.

Iran has been holding talks for almost two years with the European Union nominally aimed at making a deal over its nuclear programme, but Tehran has always refused to give ground on the key issue of enrichment.

“The nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been peaceful,” Mottaki stressed.

He also insisted that the tightened sanctions will have no impact on Iran’s economy.

“I want to assure that those who think that the sanctions cause problems for the Islamic Republic… are definitely wrong,” the foreign minister said.

“We have been able to take long steps for the improvement of the country in different fields” such as science and technology, despite US economic sanctions since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Mottaki said.

“For the first time, our country is practically involved in the production of many industrial goods,” he added.