Envoy Tells West Not To Repeat Past Mistakes Against Iran

Vienna, Nov 20, IRNA – Western powers should avoid repeating their past mistakes regarding Iran's nuclear issue, Iranian Ambassador to Hungary Seyyed Sa'eid Agha-Banihashemi said here Monday. He made the remarks in an interview with Vienna's news channel, the VN TV. 'Using peaceful nuclear energy is the legitimate right of Iranian nation; powers' demand from Tehran to abandon its nuclear program is laughable; Iran is committed to continue its nuclear activities; Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei's decree on the prohibition of nuclear weapons and any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction proves the peaceful identity of Iranian nuclear program.' The high-ranking official stressed that the Zionist regime which is the only owner of nuclear weapons in Middle East is behind most of the actions against Iran's peaceful nuclear program in the international community. 'Sanctions against Iran have harmed lots of countries and has increased the problems there; Iranian nation's response to any threat will be crushing.' Agha-Banihashemi underscored that Iran is willing to expand cooperation with Hungary in all fields. China and Russia once again has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to enhance dialogue and cooperation with Iran to resolve the country's nuclear issue. According to an alleged report by the IAEA, which was released on Friday, Iran has increased centrifuges installed at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, near the city of Qom. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the unilateral western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities. A 2008 report of the IAEA by the then Director-General, Mohamed ElBaradei, thanked Iran's honest cooperation in removing ambiguities about its past activities and confirmed that Iran has answered all the six outstanding questions of the world body about the nuclear material and activities that it had had in the past./end