By IANS
Tehran : A third resolution placing further sanctions against Iran by the UN Security Council is quite unlikely, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said.
In an interview with state television, the Iranian president said he believed “the UN Security Council and others are not willing to bear the extra costs by placing further sanctions against Iran,” IRNA new agency reported Monday.
“There is consensus that Iran’s case should be pursued only at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” he said and blamed the west for trying to make his country’s nuclear activities an international political issue.
With the positive IAEA report last month and US intelligence report that said Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons programme long before had led to “the end of the political plots,” Ahmadinejad said.
A US report by 16 intelligence agencies, known as a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and released Dec 3, said Iran had a nuclear weapons programme that was halted in the fall of 2003 that was hidden from the UN’s nuclear monitoring agency, the IAEA.
The Iranian leader described the nuclear issue as the “the toughest battle and challenge” of his government over the past couple of years and eventual “vindication” of the country’s stand on the issue had “elevated the status of Iran at the international level”.
Ahmadinejad expressed optimism that the nuclear dispute would soon be settled, saying Iran would never deviate from the peaceful and civil nature of its nuclear projects and would keep all its activities under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
The Iranian president said Iran would not give in to threats by the west over its nuclear programme and would not give up its right to enrich uranium.