By IANS,
Dubai : Iran has the right to obtain nuclear energy within the framework of international laws and abiding by the guidelines set out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says its ambassador to Kuwait Ali Jennati.
Iran would never give up its right to nuclear energy as it was crucial for the country’s electricity needs, the state-run Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) quoted the ambassador as saying.
Jennati’s comments to the Kuwait local media came following the return Tuesday of Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah from a visit to Iran.
As for the two-week deadline set by the US to Iran to respond to a set of proposed incentives offered by six nations, he said his country was used to US threats.
The five permanent members of the UN security council – the US, Britain, France, China and Russia – along with Germany, collectively known as P5+1, had earlier this month offered a package of proposed incentives in return for Iran freezing its nuclear programme.
The package includes trade and other incentives.
Stating that his country has received the bundle of incentives from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, on behalf of the P5+1, in Tehran, Jennati said Iranian officials were studying the package.
Asked about the possibility of Iran allowing the US to open an office in Tehran to look after US interests, the ambassador said that such an office already existed in the Swiss embassy in Tehran.
He added that Iran also had such a reciprocal office in the Pakistani embassy in Washington.
To a question about a possible attack on Iran by either the US or Israel, the ambassador said he did not think the US would resort to such an act while Israel was too small a country attack a country as big as Iran.
He also dismissed suppositions that Gulf nations would not allow Iran to play a larger role in the region, pointing out that the countries had themselves invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to one of their meetings at Doha in Qatar recently.
The envoy added that Gulf officials had always sought to strengthen ties with Iran.