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Iran Says U.S. Should Help It Build Nuclear Plants
EFLIran said Monday the United States could help it build nuclear reactors as a way of ensuring that Tehran kept its word not to develop atomic weapons. "If the Americans are really worried about our nuclear ambitions they could take part in constructing our nuclear power plants," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. "Look at what a sucess this was for North Korea!" U.S. officials have already dismissed the idea, floated last week by Russia. Sunday, the U.S. and Russian presidents said they had narrowed their differences over Iran at a meeting in St Petersburg. But Moscow has yet to heed Washington's pleas that it stop building Iran's first nuclear reactor, at Bushehr. Unlike North Korea, Iran denies seeking nuclear arms. But U.S. officials question why else the oil- and gas-rich Islamic republic would be investing in power-generating reactors.
He said Tehran welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's call Sunday for tighter controls on atomic weapons: "We totally agree with Putin's remarks regarding weapons of mass destruction. Iran was the first country that suggested the whole region must be void of such weapons," Asefi said. "Russia has acknowledged our nuclear activities are peaceful." "And if you can't trust Russia, who can you trust?" Iran's suggestion of U.S. cooperation in its civil nuclear program bears some comparison with a 1994 deal under which the United States agreed to give North Korea reactors unsuitable for developing weapons material in return for Pyongyang abandoning efforts to build an atomic bomb. North Korea has, however, now admitted it has built nuclear weapons, U.S. officials say. That worked well, didn't it? Posted by: Steve 2003-06-02 |
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