NCRI – Following the announcement by the United States that it was ready to join the three European countries – Britain, France and Germany – to negotiate with the mullahs’ regime to convince it to halt its nuclear program in return for incentives, the mullahs’ Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki brazenly said,” The best incentive for Iran is to recognize its right to develop nuclear energy.”
Ali Larijani, Secretary-General of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council and its chief nuclear negotiator in the nuclear talks, was quoted by the official news agency IRNA as saying, “We are prepared for negotiations but not for ceasing our nuclear program.”
Immediately after the Foreign Ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany met in Vienna and agreed to offer the mullahs new incentives, the regime took a leap forward and announced that there was a need for uranium enrichment to be carried out to a level of 19.9 percent, adding that no one could place a limit on the level of which it enriched uranium.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chief of the regime’s atomic energy agency, said in this respect, “The preconditions set by the U.S. government are not acceptable. … It is incorrect to put a 3.5, 5 or even a 10 percent cap on Iran’s level of uranium enrichment. Fuel for light water reactors needs uranium enriched to even 19.9 percent. So, these remarks that Iran should accept a 10 percent cap on its enrichment cannot be correct.”
Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran reiterated that the mullahs view the acquisition of nuclear weapons as a strategic guarantee for their survival and statements made by the regime’s officials in this regard over the past two days indicate that no amount of incentives would encourage the mullahs to abandon their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“Regrettably, the continuation of the appeasement policy vis-ÃÂ -vis the mullahs’ regime has proven to be a failure,” said Mr. Mohaddessin. He added, “Only a firm and decisive policy can prevent the regime from acquiring nuclear weapons. Such a policy must include comprehensive sanctions being imposed by the UN Security Council. The experience of the past four years has proven that extending continuing negotiations and offering further incentives give the mullahs the only thing they need to develop nuclear weapons: Time. This would bring the region and the world closer to the prospect of a catastrophic war.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 3, 2006
