By IANS,
Tehran : Iran Sunday said it will not call off its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for economic incentives, IRNA news agency reported.
Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, during his weekly press briefing, urged the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) to acknowledge the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme and revise their policies.
Hosseini said UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has given Tehran a clean bill that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
The past policy of sanctions against Iran had proved futile and would not work in the future, either, he said.
The P5+1 – comprising the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany – is to meet in Shanghai April 16 to discuss Tehran’s standoff with the West over the nuclear issue in the first such consultation.
The Iranian official asked the Shanghai meet to instead discuss ways to make up for the damage the West and the US have inflicted on Iran by imposing sanctions.
The Security Council has till date adopted three resolutions, including sanctions against Iran for having refused to stop its enrichment activities, which, Tehran insists, are parts of its nuclear power plan.
The US and some western governments say Iran has been pursuing a secret weapons plan under the guise of its nuclear power programme.
Iran’s vice president and head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, Holamreza Aghazadeh is to meet Monday in Vienna with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei to discuss both the newly-installed centrifuges and future programmes, including the use of higher speed centrifuges for uranium enrichment.