AP News, December 31st, 2006
Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned Western countries Sunday that their strategy of pressuring Iran to roll back its nuclear program by imposing sanctions will backfire.
Rafsanjani, who heads the influential Expediency Council, also said that Iran was willing to work with international organizations to resolve the standoff over its nuclear program.
"The problems will not be limited to Iran. Many (countries) will suffer from the smoke from this fire," Rafsanjani told a crowd of thousands at Tehran University who gathered on the first day of the Eid al-Adha for Iranian Shiite Muslims.
The United States and some of its Western allies contend that Iran is using its nuclear program as cover to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies the accusation.
The U.N. Security Council on Dec. 23 voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment _ a process that produces the material for either nuclear reactors or bombs.
In a sermon broadcast live by Iranian state TV, Rafsanjani said that Iran will not halt its uranium enrichment under the pressure of sanctions.
But Rafsanjani appeared to declare his willingness to work with the U.N. nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resolve Iran's differences over its nuclear program with the international community.
"We are ready to resolve the accusations with logic, negotiations and inspections. We are ready to cooperate with international bodies under their regulations," he said, in a more moderate stance than that taken by Iranian lawmakers who recently voted to re-examine Iran's ties with the IAEA.
Rafsanjani did not give conditions for negotiating, but Western countries have required Iran to suspend enriching uranium as a requirement for holding talks _ a condition Iran has rejected.
He described the U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on Iran as dangerous, saying that although it was amended "it still has 15 dangerous and ominous points." He did not elaborate.
The U.N. resolution orders all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. It also freezes Iranian assets of 10 key companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.
If Iran refuses to comply, the council warned it would adopt further nonmilitary sanctions, but the resolution emphasized the importance of diplomacy in seeking guarantees "that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes."
