By IANS
Tehran : President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday dismissed as non-starter a threat by a French minister of going to war against Iran over the enrichment issue.
Ahmadinejad, talking to reporters after his address to the Iranian parliament, said his country “does not take seriously” the threat late Sunday by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that war against Iran over the nuclear dispute might be possible.
“We do not take these statements seriously. Comments to the media are different from real statements,” Irna news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Kouchner during an interview with French television LCI over the Iran issue said Sunday, “We must prepare ourselves for the worse, and the worse is war”.
A number of Western nations, led by the US, argue that Tehran has been on an weaponisation programme under the guise of building a nuclear power plant. The US has called for tougher UN sanctions on Iran to dissuade it from allegedly secretly enriching weapons-grade uranium.
Iran, for its part, insisted that enrichment is its “non-negotiable sovereign right” and that its nuclear programme is for civilian use.
Late last month UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in an upbeat report on Iran said Tehran has taken “significant step forward” in working out a timeline to resolve all its outstanding issues with IAEA.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, now attending its annual Vienna conference, Monday told reporters there was no need to go beyond diplomacy over the issue.