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Iran's nuclear activity is military, says French minister
France's foreign minister has said Iran is operating a "clandestine military nuclear programme" and called on the United Nations Security Council to take strong action in order to avoid a potential crisis.Philippe Douste-Blazy told a French television station that Teheran's had ignored international warnings and was not telling the truth about its nuclear ambitions. "No civil nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. It is a clandestine military nuclear program," said Mr Douste-Blazy. "The international community has sent a very firm message in telling the Iranians to return to reason and suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment and conversion of uranium, but they aren't listening to us." Mr Douste-Blazy's comments are the latest stage in the diplomatic row over Iran's decision to resume nuclear enrichment work. Teheran insists it is to generate nuclear power but the international community fears the country is building nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council is to consider Iran's nuclear programme next month after European-led negotiations failed to persuade Iran to suspend parts of its nuclear program. "Now it's up to the Security Council to say what it will do, what means it will use to stop, to manage, to halt this terrible crisis of nuclear proliferation caused by Iran," Mr Douste-Blazy said. Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, hit back at the comments by telling French radio Iran was a responsible country that was not seeking to build a bomb, and blaming "Western propaganda" for escalating the issue. Posted by: tipper 2006-02-16 |
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