Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
May 5, 2008
Pg. 10
By Nazila Fathi
TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme religious leader said Sunday that his nation would not bow to pressure after Western powers announced Friday that they would offer a new package of incentives to coax Iran to give up its nuclear program.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader, who has the final word on state matters, did not refer directly to the country’s nuclear program, but his comments seemed to suggest that Iran was not willing to compromise.
“Have you not tested the Iranian nation?” the ISNA news agency quoted him as asking during a speech in Fars Province on Sunday. “We will forcefully continue on our path and will not allow the oppressors to step on our rights.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said economic sanctions could not affect the nation’s will. He was referring to action from the United Nations Security Council, which ordered a third set of sanctions against Iran in March.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior officials from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany met Friday in London and said that they would offer a new package of incentives to Iran in an effort to persuade it to abandon its uranium-enrichment program. Details of the new package have not been made public.
Iran has rejected previous proposals in the past, stressing that it would not give up its heavy water enrichment program.
Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was quoted in Sunday newspapers as saying that the new package should not cross Iran’s “red line.” Officials have said in the past that Iran’s red line was its uranium-enrichment program.
Enrichment can make fuel for civilian nuclear reactors or, if taken to higher levels, for nuclear warheads. The United States and other Western countries have accused Iran of having a clandestine nuclear arms program, but Iran says its program is peaceful and is devoted solely to producing fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity.
May 5, 2008
Pg. 10
By Nazila Fathi
TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme religious leader said Sunday that his nation would not bow to pressure after Western powers announced Friday that they would offer a new package of incentives to coax Iran to give up its nuclear program.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader, who has the final word on state matters, did not refer directly to the country’s nuclear program, but his comments seemed to suggest that Iran was not willing to compromise.
“Have you not tested the Iranian nation?” the ISNA news agency quoted him as asking during a speech in Fars Province on Sunday. “We will forcefully continue on our path and will not allow the oppressors to step on our rights.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said economic sanctions could not affect the nation’s will. He was referring to action from the United Nations Security Council, which ordered a third set of sanctions against Iran in March.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior officials from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany met Friday in London and said that they would offer a new package of incentives to Iran in an effort to persuade it to abandon its uranium-enrichment program. Details of the new package have not been made public.
Iran has rejected previous proposals in the past, stressing that it would not give up its heavy water enrichment program.
Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was quoted in Sunday newspapers as saying that the new package should not cross Iran’s “red line.” Officials have said in the past that Iran’s red line was its uranium-enrichment program.
Enrichment can make fuel for civilian nuclear reactors or, if taken to higher levels, for nuclear warheads. The United States and other Western countries have accused Iran of having a clandestine nuclear arms program, but Iran says its program is peaceful and is devoted solely to producing fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity.