CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egypt rebuked Iran's president on Monday for claiming his state is "a nuclear country" - a comment that touched a nerve among Iran's neighbors in the Middle East.
Iran has consistently denied it seeks to build nuclear weapons, saying it aims to use its nuclear technology only to produce electrical power. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ambiguous statement stirred fears about its nuclear ambitions. "Iran is a nuclear country" whether the world likes it or not, he told a gathering Sunday in Tehran.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit responded Monday by saying only states that possess atomic bombs should claim to be nuclear powers. "Nuclear states are only those that have military nuclear capabilities," he said in a statement. "The possession by some countries of peaceful nuclear technology or some of stages of the nuclear cycle or carrying out some peaceful nuclear activities does not mean by any means that it can call itself a nuclear state."
Iran's decision to declare itself a nuclear power could undermine Egypt's campaign to get the Middle East to declare itself a zone free of nuclear weapons.
| Thinking wishfully that this will cause Israel to give up its nukes. Then again, Olmert's still in charge ... |
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