From CNN: Iran: Atomic program has no brake.
Iran has no brake and no reverse gear in its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, while a deputy foreign minister vowed Tehran was prepared for any eventuality, "even for war."The tough talk comes ahead of a meeting this week of officials from the U.N. Security Council plus Germany in London to consider possible further steps after limited sanctions were imposed on Tehran in December.
"Iran has obtained the technology to produce nuclear fuel and Iran's move is like a train ... which has no brake and no reverse gear," Ahmadinejad said, ISNA news agency reported.
The United States repeated its call for Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a process Washington believes Tehran is seeking to master in order to build atomic bombs.
Iran, which insists its only wants to make fuel to generate electricity, ignored last week's U.N. deadline to stop the work.
"They don't need a reverse gear. They need a stop button," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News. She said her offer to meet Iran's foreign minister or other Iranian representatives still stood if Iran suspended enrichment.
The United States insists it wants a diplomatic solution to the row but has not ruled out military action if that fails.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Saturday Iran's atomic ambitions must be curbed and said "all options" were on the table. Iran says Washington is in no position to attack when its troops are bogged down in Iraq but says it is ready in case.
UPDATE I -- Feb. 26: This FOX News headline says it all: Iran: We Will Never Give Up Nuke Program, but We Are Ready for Unconditional Talks. Nonetheless, the West will keep trying to negoiate, until it's too late.
UPDATE -II: From Ardeshir Dolat: Don’t negotiate with the terrorists.
There would have been a path to peaceful resolution had it not been for the terrorist element in the Islamic regime that now has the full control of the country. That element is not only anti-Western, anti-human, anti-modernity, anti-democracy and anti-Iranian, but also seeks to implement its fundamentalist Islamic ideology in every country of the world, i.e. the Islamic rule as promised by the Koran and return of the hidden Imam and by use of force if necessary. The terrorist element of the Islamic regime unilaterally declared and waged their war against humanity decades ago. If there is any hope of ending that war, it should come from the terrorist element of the Islamic regime and that will never come. Furthermore, It is inconceivable to accept the Islamist terrorists’ medieval ideology in the 21st century and therefore the answer to the question is no, there is no path to peaceful resolution.Posted by Forkum at February 25, 2007 05:33 PM
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