Iran defiant as nuclear deadline expires

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday defiantly vowed Iran would not back down "an inch" in the face of Western pressure as time was running out on a UN deadline for Tehran to halt sensitive nuclear work.

Ahmadinejad's message came hours before the UN nuclear watchdog was expected to declare Tehran was defying the Security Council by refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the explosive core of a nuclear bomb.

"Iran will not back down an inch in the face of intimidation, aggression and will not accept being deprived of its rights," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Orumiyeh, the provincial capital of West Azarbaijan province.

"Iran will never renounce peaceful nuclear energy and its absolute right" to nuclear energy, state radio quoted the president as saying during a later speech in the northern town of Mahabad.

The United States, which accuses Tehran of using a nuclear energy programme as cover for a drive to make atomic weapons, has expressed confidence that the UN Security Council can agree sanctions against Tehran in September.

Iran vehemently denies the US charges, maintaining that its nuclear programme is peaceful and is aimed solely at providing civilian nuclear energy.

Iran has not ruled out discussing the question of suspension of uranium enrichment in talks even though it has also insisted it has no intention of renouncing the activity.

Diplomats said Tehran had started another round of uranium enrichment by putting small quantities of (feedstock) uranium hexafluoride gas last week into a cascade line of 164 centrifuges just ahead of the deadline's expiry.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he was still hopeful Iran will respond positively at the last minute to international demands that it freeze uranium enrichment.

"Today is August 31. August 31 was the last day for Iran to give its response, which we hope until the last moment will be positive," he told a press conference.

The five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany, have offered Iran a package of incentives if it halts uranium enrichment. Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani is due to hold talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on the offer next week.

According to The New York Times, The United States and its European allies are considering a three-tier system of sanctions against Iran, beginning with low-impact measures like a travel ban for Iranian nuclear officials.

Should Iran continue to resist compliance, the sanctions would be ratcheted up to include restrictions on commercial flights and on World Bank loans to Tehran, the paper quoted an official as saying.

But Iran said it was ready for any UN sanctions that could be imposed, adding to the existing wide-ranging US economic sanctions that were imposed in the wake of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

"The Islamic republic is capable enough of confronting any challenges arising from sanctions," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying on state television.

"Sanctions will make the country stronger and the nation will find the way out of these pressures," he said.

Ahmadinejad has late Wednesday called on European countries not to follow "wrong and aggressive" policies of the United States, which broke diplomatic ties with Iran in 1979, and hold talks with Iran over its nuclear programme.

"The problem is that American leaders think they can solve all the problems by using force and their arsenal," Ahmadinejad said in his Orumiyeh speech, to cheers and chants from the thousands gathered for the open-air address.

"But times have changed and we are in an epoch of culture, thought and logic, and it is because of this that they refuse to have a debate with us," he said.

The White House earlier this week rejected an offer from Ahmadinejad to hold a live televised debate with US President George W. Bush, rubbishing the proposal as a "diversion".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview published Thursday the proposal was "bizarre" and that Ahmadinejad wanted to present himself as "the leader of the Islamic world".

But he added: "Our hand remains extended. We want a diplomatic solution."