Iran has used an anti-nuclear weapons conference to publicly deny links with bomb attacks on British forces in Iraq. Iranian ambassador Dr Seyed Mohammed Hossein Adeli said the claims had been floated in diplomatic circles since the spring. Last week Tony Blair said there was evidence the attacks in southern Iraq led back to Iran.
His remarks followed the disclosure by a senior UK official that the sophisticated bombs that killed eight British soldiers had been supplied by Hezbollah via the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. But Dr Adeli insisted: "There is no connection either direct or indirect to terrorist attacks on British soldiers in Iraq," he said.
He said the only grounds for the allegations were that bombs left over in Iraq from the Iran-Iraq war may have been used by insurgents. He added he did not want this diplomatic dispute to affect negotiations over his country's development of nuclear technology. Dr Adeli, speaking at the annual Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament conference, said: "We do not expect the British to use Iraq to put pressure on Iran during nuclear negotiations."
The ambassador also described claims made on Friday by the US ambassador to the UN about an Iranian nuclear weapons plan as "baseless". Referring to John Bolton's claims that Iran has engaged in an 18-year programme to develop nuclear weapons and might be intending to supply them to terrorists, Dr Adeli said this was completely false."We have had a nuclear power programme for 18 years but have never made any kind of nuclear weapon." Iran needs a nuclear programme because its oil supplies were being depleted and the country's growth depended on having a sustainable energy supply. The country had never broken any international law in its nuclear technology programme and felt it was being prevented in its "inalienable" right to develop a nuclear power supply. Iran was willing, he said, to re-enter negotiations with the EU without any pre-conditions.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2094782005
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
