Friday, 16 June 2006LONDON, June 16 (IranMania) - The international community's "carrot-and-stick" policy over Iran's nuclear program is counterproductive, a senior Iranian official said, AFP reported.
"The carrot-and-stick policy has always been counterproductive," Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh told an IAEA meeting in Vienna.
"In the case of Iran, humiliation and the use of language of threat of referring the nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council... have had serious impact on mutual trust and confidence on parties involved and thus the process of negotiations," he said.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also indicated Thursday his country would not bow to international pressure over its controversial nuclear program, state television reported.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not bend to these pressures, and the continuation of this scientific progress is its fundamental and basic right," Khamenei said, talking to the staff of the Iranian Nuclear Energy Organization.
It was his first reaction to a package of proposals drawn up by Britain, France and Germany, and backed by the United States, Russia and China, in a bid to defuse the crisis over Iran's nuclear plans.
Asked when Iran would give its response, Soltanieh told reporters "the package is under serious consideration".
"We will inform our European friends in due course."
The UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors wrapped up its discussions on Iran mid-Thursday but was to hold a final session later in the day.
IAEA board members were reviewing two reports from agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, one from April 28 and the other from last week, which show
Iran has ignored calls to halt uranium enrichment.
The process can be used to make reactor fuel to generate nuclear power, but can also produce atom bomb material.
Friday, June 16, 2006 - T®2005 IranMania.com
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Friday, 16 June 2006
Iran
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