New York, May 05: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned here Tuesday that a new round of UN sanctions against Tehran would close the door on diplomatic engagement with the United States.
“The path to that (improved ties) will be shut,” Ahmadinejad told reporters, adding that it would mean a “reversal to the (former US president George W.) Bush era” of confrontation rather than the engagement US President Barack Obama says he seeks.
Ahmadinejad on Monday blasted the United States, at a UN conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), for blocking other nations’ access to peaceful nuclear energy.
Obama came to office last year saying he wanted to talk with Iran over US concerns that Tehran is using a civilian nuclear program to hide the development of atomic weapons.
But the US president also advocates increasing pressure on Iran with UN sanctions.
Washington has led the drive for three rounds of UN Security Council economic sanctions on Iran since December 2006.
If the Council were to adopt a fourth round, “the relationship between Iran and the United States will never improve again,” Ahmadinejad told a press conference on the sidelines of the NPT meeting.
He said he was concerned “that the opportunity presented as a result of Mr. Obama coming to office to reform America’s image in the world, an image that was shaped by taking a position against other nations, would be lost.”
Ahmadinejad said that despite this Iran would not withdraw from the NPT, the treaty governing the world’s fight to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, nor stop cooperating with the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.
“My presence here means that we want the NPT to be revised, that it becomes a fair system and that we remain an active member of the IAEA,” Ahmadinejad said.
He said Iran did not want sanctions imposed against it.
“The heaviest political pressures have been imposed on us since the revolution… We do not embrace or welcome any of these resolutions or sanctions,” he said.
But he said: “Experience has proven that sanctions cannot stop the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation is able to withstand all the pressures brought against it by the United States and its allies.”
Iran has “managed to turn that into opportunity for progress… Iran today is far more advanced than 30 years ago,” he said.
“We feel and think that the US government will be damaged more than us by those sanctions” as “sanctions in a free trade world are a broke deal” that will hurt the United States, Ahmadinejad said.
If Washington “insists on falling from a cliff, there’s nothing that can be done,” the Iranian President said.
Ahmadinejad at the NPT conference Monday had charged that Washington was threatening Iran with nuclear weapons, an interpretation of a US policy that does not rule out using the bomb against states in non-compliance with the NPT.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday had dismissed the Iranian leader’s charges as “wild accusations” in her speech to the opening session of the three-week review conference.
Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Clinton had come with an “angry posture, threatens Iran, shouts at Iran.”
He challenged her to say what was wrong with his comments on the nuclear issue.
“The NPT has been weak, failed and needs major revision” as it is dominated by nuclear weapons states which block other countries from using atomic energy for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity, Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad backs Brazil plan for nuclear fuel swap
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad has approved a Brazilian plan aimed at breaking the impasse over the UN-drafted nuclear fuel swap deal for Tehran, his website said on Wednesday.
World powers and Iran have been at loggerheads for months over the deal, which envisages supplying nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor in exchange for low-enriched uranium from Iran.
The deal stalled after Iran insisted the two materials be exchanged simultaneously within its borders — a condition rejected by the US.
In April Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said during a visit to Tehran that his country could “examine” hosting the fuel swap if requested by Iran.
He also said that Brazil could act as a “political guarantor” for the deal.
According to the website president.ir, Ahmadinejad discussed a Brazilian proposal in a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday.
“The main issue of talks between Ahmadinejad and Chavez was the Brazilian president’s proposal regarding the nuclear fuel swap and Ahmadinejad declared his basic approval to this proposal.”
The website did not give details about what the Brazilian proposal was but Amorim told Iran’s official news agency IRNA on April 27 that Brazil could host a fuel swap deal if asked by Tehran.
“As of now there is no proposal, but if we receive such a proposal, it could be examined,” he said.
Tehran had previously said that it could consider whether the fuel could be swapped in Japan, Brazil, Turkey or on the Iranian Kish island.
Amorim had also said in Tehran that Brazil was “interested in having a role in settling Iran’s nuclear issue.”
He said Brazil and Turkey could be possible “political guarantors” to help resolve the issue, adding that Ankara could also be the host to exchange nuclear fuel.
Brazil and Turkey, two temporary members of the 15-strong UN Security Council, have consistently defended Iran’s nuclear programme.
—Agencies