By RIA Novosti,
Tehran : Iran will continue to enrich uranium despite demands by the so-called Iran Six to suspend its nuclear program, the president of the Islamic Republic said on Monday.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke after arriving in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, to attend a Developing 8 summit. The Developing 8 is an economic development alliance also involving Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.
“On the one hand, they want talks with Iran, on the other, they threaten us and tell us to give in to their illegitimate demands and relinquish our rights. This is the same old story,” Ahmadinejad said.
On June 14, Iran received a package of new incentives from the Iran Six – China, France, Russia, the United States, Germany and Britain. The proposals offer political, security and trade benefits to Iran in exchange for the suspension of its nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad also said that U.S. accusations that Iran was attempting to build nuclear weapons, which Tehran has consistently denied, were merely an excuse to pressurize the Islamic Republic.
“The enemies of the Iranian nation simply do not want us to make progress,” the president said.
Commenting on media speculation regarding a possible attack on Iran by Israel and/or the U.S., Ahmadinejad said they would not dare to do so. Iran’s oil minister said on Saturday that global oil prices would jump to unprecedented levels in the event of an attack on the country.
Iran is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN Security Council sanctions for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment, which it says it needs purely for electricity generation.