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  • IRAN: Cleric insists talks can resolve Iran's atomic row.

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IRAN: Cleric insists talks can resolve Iran's atomic row.

Iran is ready to resolve its nuclear dispute with the West through talks but will not yield to growing Western pressure to abandon its atomic activities, influential cleric Ahmad Khatami said on Friday (August 25). "The world understood that the Security Council is a tool in the hands of America and has no free will of its own. It acts like a slave to America," Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran, broadcast live on state radio. "Using the language of pressure to talk to our nation is not a wise and mature move. We will not abandon our right (to nuclear technology)," he added. The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran suspend atomic work by Aug. 31 or face the threat of sanctions. The West says the work is being used to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is meant only for generating power. Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts -- a clerical body that supervises Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- repeated that any talks to resolve Iran's nuclear issue should be "fair and logical". He also told other superpowers to resist to pressure from the United States: "We recommend that China and Russia should not become trapped in the net of America." In response to an offer of commercial and technological incentives made by six world powers in early June, Tehran said on Tuesday it was ready to hold talks on its atomic activities. The United States has called Iran's response insufficient, though a State Department spokesman said on Thursday there was still time for Iran to comply with the Aug. 31 deadline. Germany said the reply was unsatisfactory. Iran said last week that its Arak heavy water nuclear reactor would be inaugurated soon. The plant's plutonium by-product can be used to make atomic warheads. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that imposing U.N. sanctions on Iran would lift already high oil prices to levels that would be unmanageable for industrialised economies.

ITN Source | August 25, 2006Watch more videos from ITN Source

Tags:. .hands. .used. .technology. .technological. .six











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