TEHERAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday
ruled out any idea of halting nuclear fuel work in return for EU incentives,
saying the Europeans were offering "candy for gold."
Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, waves to people during his trip to Arak, a town in
central Iran, some 300 Kms (180 miles) south of Tehran, Iran, Wedesday,
May 17, 2006. [AP] |
Britain, France and Germany, the European Union's three biggest powers, plan
to offer Iran a light-water reactor as part of a package to induce Teheran to
freeze a uranium enrichment programme that the West suspects has military
dimensions.
"They say we want to give Iranians incentives but they think they are dealing
with a 4-year-old, telling him they will give him candies or walnuts and take
gold from him in return," Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the central city of Arak.
Arak is the site of a heavy-water nuclear reactor that Iran is building
despite opposition from Western countries concerned that the plant's plutonium
by-product could be used in warheads.
"Iran will not accept any suspension or freeze (of nuclear work),"
Ahmadinejad said in a speech that was televised live.
The EU seeks an end to Iran's nuclear fuel activities as the only credible
guarantee that it is not making atomic weapons. Teheran insists it needs the
fuel only for power stations.
"We trusted you three years ago and accepted suspension but unfortunately
this proved to be a bitter experience in Iranian history. We will not be bitten
by the same snake twice," Ahmadinejad said of European diplomacy.
Iran suspended uranium enrichment work in 2003 as a goodwill gesture while it
tried to forge a diplomatic solution to the stand-off in talks with France,
Germany and Britain.
But the diplomacy failed and Iran resumed work on atomic fuel in August last
year.
Ahmadinejad warned that pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme could
produce adverse reactions. "Don't force governments and nations which are
signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to pull out of it," he said.
The permanent five members of the UN Security Council and Germany have
delayed a meeting on Iran scheduled for this week to allow more time to prepare
the EU proposal, a British Foreign Office spokesman said.
The United States has taken a wary approach. "The package has not yet been
agreed," US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said. "It is under
development and we'll be meeting probably next week in Europe to look at
it."