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Iran Sets Condition to Halt Nuke Program
Las Vegas Sun ^ | February 20, 2007 at 8:30:5 PST | ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 02/20/2007 10:47:07 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday said his country was ready to stop its enrichment program and return to talks provided Western nations also stopped their own. Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in northern Iran one day ahead of a U.N. Security Council deadline that it was no problem for his country to stop, but that "fair talks" demanded a similar gesture from the West.

"That ... we shut down our nuclear fuel cycle program to let talks begin. It's no problem. But justice demands that those who want to hold talks with us shut down their nuclear fuel cycle program too. Then, we can hold dialogue under a fair atmosphere," Ahmadinejad said.

The White House dismissed Ahmadinejad's call.

"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" White House press secretary Tony Snow asked. "It's pretty clear that the international community has said to the Iranians, `You can have nuclear power but we don't want you to have the ability to build nuclear weapons.' And that is an offer we continue to make."

The Security Council has set Wednesday as a deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment or face further economic sanctions.

Iran has long insisted that it will not stop its nuclear activities as a condition for negotiations to start.

"The condition they set for talks is a condition that deprives us of our rights," Ahmadinejad said of the United States and its Western allies. "We have never been after confrontation and tension. We have always been for dialogue but dialogue under fair conditions."

Ahmadinejad's speech was unusually conciliatory, avoiding fiery denunciations of the West.

"We are for talks but they have to be fair negotiations. That means, both sides hold talks under equal conditions," he said.

He added, however, that it was unacceptable for countries to demand that Iran stop its nuclear activities without reciprocity.

"We say how is it that your (nuclear fuel) production facilities work 24 hours a day, but you feel threatened by our newly established complex and we need to shut it down for talks," he asked.

Iran has rejected the sanctions as "illegal" and said it would not give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.

The United States and several of its Western allies believe that Iran is using its nuclear program to produce an atomic weapon - charges Iran denies, saying its aim is to generate electricity.

Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad said Iran would not give in to coercion, and warned the U.S. and its allies that they would fail to force it into giving up its nuclear program.

"If you want to speak from the position of power and make use of the oppressing leverage of some international institutions, you have to know the you will fail against the unity and resistance of the Iranian nation," he said.

--


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ahmadinejad; geopolitics; iran; nukes; proliferation

1 posted on 02/20/2007 10:47:12 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

They shpuld give up the nuke program, with no strings attached.

Otherwise, we nuke them.


2 posted on 02/20/2007 10:48:40 AM PST by YoungAmerican84 (Honorary member of the World Zionist Conspiracy)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Just send Carter and Albright there -- they can handle it.


3 posted on 02/20/2007 10:50:22 AM PST by EagleUSA
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: YoungAmerican84
Related thread:

BBC: Tehran alarm over US tough talk ~ they must read the West's newspapers......

5 posted on 02/20/2007 10:52:50 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: Fstrt5; EagleUSA

See above link for a related story.


6 posted on 02/20/2007 10:53:58 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: All
White House dismisses Iranian president's 'offer'
7 posted on 02/20/2007 10:57:05 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday said his country was ready to stop its enrichment program and return to talks provided Western nations also stopped their own.

Oh, yes, and let's hope Iran's good buddy, France, which receives 78% of their national electricity supply from 59 nuclear power plants (and plans to build another one) takes his warning to heart.

8 posted on 02/20/2007 10:58:23 AM PST by xJones
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

If the world media spent as much time condemning Iran's sabre rattling and drive for a nuclear capability as they do giving Ahmadjihad a megaphone and free PR, we might get somewhere.


9 posted on 02/20/2007 11:04:01 AM PST by mkjessup (If Reagan were still with us, he'd ask us to "win one more for the Gipper, vote for Duncan Hunter!")
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: xJones
Tony speaks....see link above:

********************************AN EXCERPT******************************

WASHINGTON: The White House has scoffed at comments from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has offered to suspend uranium enrichment work if Western countries do the same.   

"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" White House spokesman Tony Snow said when asked about Ahmadinejad's comments earlier Tuesday.   

11 posted on 02/20/2007 11:06:03 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
They can have a nuke program.

Delivered one ICBM at a time - VFR direct to the Almad's palace.
12 posted on 02/20/2007 11:07:19 AM PST by roaddog727 (BullS##t does not get bridges built)
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To: xJones
Oh, yes, and let's hope Iran's good buddy, France,

France is good buddies with Iran? On what planet?

13 posted on 02/20/2007 11:12:06 AM PST by Alter Kaker (Hard headed brainwashed trained monkey)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

You don't suppose this change of attitude has anything to do with the consessions North Korea wrangled from us last week, do you?


14 posted on 02/20/2007 11:18:12 AM PST by econjack
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

It looks like El Baradei and him are in cahoots, for just the other day an article was posted here in which EB characterized the West as hypocritical for having nukes and not allowing others to possess them.


15 posted on 02/20/2007 11:21:56 AM PST by flying Elvis ("In...War, the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst" Clausewitz.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Iran has long insisted that it will not stop its nuclear activities as a condition for negotiations to start.

Here lies Iran's out. The victim card. They can wait out the UN until such time as sanctions become unbearable.

Notice Russia has already started snapping because payments are coming slower fron the Iranian Nation for nuclear power plant construction.

Another round of sanctions will happen and then Iran can shut down their enrichment program and claim that the evil and illegal world oppressed them and took their rights away.

Nice try Imagonnajihad but the world ain't buying what you have been selling.
16 posted on 02/20/2007 11:29:39 AM PST by Just sayin (Is is what it is, for if it was anything else, it would be isn't.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"The condition they set for talks is a condition that deprives us of our rights," Ahmadinejad said of the United States and its Western allies. "We have never been after confrontation and tension. We have always been for dialogue but dialogue under fair conditions."

Is this what you call dialogue?

[Iranian President Ahmadinejad at an “emergency” meeting of the 57 Muslim member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Malaysia] …the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel. In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called Israel a "countefeit and illegitimate regime that cannot survive", in a live broadcast on state television. "The Zionist regime is counterfeit and illegitimate and cannot survive," he said in a spech to a crowd in the town of Islamshahr in southwestern Tehran.

Ahmadinejad, who has a history of similarly fiery rhetoric, said Israel no longer had any reason to exist and would soon disappear. "This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence," he said. "Efforts to stabilize this fake (Israeli) regime, by the grace of God, have completely failed . . . You should believe that this regime is disappearing," he said.

17 posted on 02/20/2007 11:43:55 AM PST by Mat_Helm
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Ahamadingyjob is stalling. He's trying the NK strategy; call for talks, promise anything, keep on working.


18 posted on 02/20/2007 1:57:41 PM PST by TigersEye (Copperheads are infesting our country.)
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