MOSCOW,
June 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Russia appeared ready
Wednesday, June 4, to put pressure on Iran to agree to strict United
Nations nuclear inspections by slowing down its nuclear assistance,
although the Russian atomic energy minister denied Moscow issued any
ultimatums.
A
top presidential advisor said Russia would pursue full cooperation
with Iran’s nuclear power projects only after the U.N. nuclear
watchdog certified that Tehran was not developing nuclear weapons.
"When
the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) states that there are no
nuclear military programmes in Iran, then it will be possible to
restore normal cooperation, work by Russia with Iran in all
spheres," Andrei Illarionov, Russia's top representative at the
Group of Eight group of leading industrialised nations, was quoted by
Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
The
official appeared to be suggesting that the Bushehr power plant,
Iran’s first nuclear power station, which is being built by Russia,
would not be brought to completion until the IAEA gave the green
light.
Illarionov,
who is also President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser, told a press
conference that Iran should provide full access to U.N. nuclear
inspectors to lay to rest international concerns about its nuclear
program.
No
‘Link’
Amid
contradictory signals from the Russian government on the highly
sensitive issue, Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev denied
reports that Moscow would refuse to deliver nuclear fuel unless Tehran
gave U.N. monitors full access.
"There
is no link," Rumyantsev said, asked about a Russian press report
that Moscow would only supply the fuel if Iran signed an additional
protocol of the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
that would allow tougher inspections.
In
an earlier report published by The Independent, Putin
suspended the sale of all nuclear material to Iran in a move the paper
dubbed as calculated to cheer George Bush and allow the world's eight
most powerful nations to present a united front against the spread of
nuclear weapons.
Iran
has been urged to allow the IAEA to inspect suspect sites in the
country as a confidence-building measure and to sign the additional
protocol.
An
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted by the
BBC News Online as saying Iran would not sign any new protocols until
international sanctions were dropped and it was given the technology
to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Tehran
has been accused by the United States of using an atomic energy
programme as a cover for illicit development of nuclear weapons, a
charge the Islamic Republic vehemently denies.
The
United States, which last year branded Iran along with North Korea and
Saddam Hussein's Iraq in an "axis of evil", has been putting
huge pressure on Russia to pull out of the Bushehr project.
The
Bushehr reactor should be operational by the end of 2004 and the power
station connected to the electricity grid in 2005, the minister added,
denying there was any "slowdown" in the project in response
to US pressure.
‘Suicide’
 |
|
"A
military attack against Iran would be suicide for the
aggressor," said Khamenei
|
In
the meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned
Wednesday that any military attack against the Islamic republic would
be "suicide for the aggressor," in a speech that came amid
mounting tension with the United States.
"The
Iranian people know that the Islamic republic's leaders will not lead
the country to war with anybody. We would not welcome war, but the
people and their leaders will defend the country from any aggression
with power and determination," Khamenei warned.
"A
military attack against Iran would be suicide for the aggressor,"
he said in his speech marking the 14th anniversary of the death of
Iran Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Tens
of thousands of people were at Khomeini's vast shrine complex on the
southern outskirts of Tehran for the occasion -- marked by a public
holiday -- and Khomeini’s defiant comments were greeted by deafening
chants of "Death to America, Death to Israel."
Khamenei
calmly predicted that Iran’s "enemies will not make war with
us, because they know they would pay a very heavy price."
"A
war against Iran would not be war against a dictatorship or a military
regime, but a war against an entire people. But by threatening war,
they want to weaken the leadership and people and push them towards
treason," said the all-powerful leader, who took charge of Iran
after Khomeini's death in 1989.
Khamenei,
who has the last word on all matters of state, also gave a stiff
warning to any officials urging compromise with the United States --
still referred to by hardliners as the "Great Satan."
"If
there are some officials who go against the interests of the country
and the people, they will be rejected without pity," Khamenei
warned.
Hitting
back at U.S. allegations that Iran was harbouring al-Qaeda members,
Khamenei asserted that "Iran does not support terrorism or host
terrorists".
But
he qualified that by arguing "the millions of young Muslims who
hate the American oppressors cannot be classed as terrorists."
Khamenei also hit out at the "American occupation" of
neighbouring Iraq..
"You
accuse Iran of interfering in Iraq, but your enemy is the Iraqi
people. You say that you are worried about our influence, but we say
we are worried about your presence in Iraq," Khamenei said.
Iran
and the United States cut diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic
revolution, and despite signs of a thaw in relations under former U.S.
president Bill Clinton, relations have again deteriorated with U.S.
President George W. Bush.
