By DPA,
Tehran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday reiterated Iran would not compromise over its nuclear programme at multilateral talks scheduled later this week in Istanbul.
“Today we are making progress in the nuclear field and they can say and do whatever they want,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.
The president said that UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions would not stop the Iranian nuclear drive.
“They can even issue 100,000 resolutions,” he said, “like we care.”
Iran is scheduled to resume the nuclear talks with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US Friday and Saturday in Istanbul.
The six countries will be represented in Istanbul by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and the Iranian side by chief nuclear negotiator Saedi Jalili.
So far Iran has not only rejected the main demand by the six powers, suspension of uranium enrichment, but has objected to even including the nuclear dispute in the agenda for the meeting.
Tehran has said that if the other nations acknowledge Iran’s right to pursue a civil nuclear programme, then the Islamic state would be ready “to discuss the framework for future cooperation on the basis of mutual interest”.
Tehran says that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful and transparent and it is not pursuing a secret military programme as suspected by many Western countries.