With the British sailors in a dire situation at the hands of the Revolutionary Iranian guard navy, it should come as no surprise that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed he will continue to work on their atomic program and rejects the UN sanctions (CNN), which he categorizes as ‘useless pieces of paper’. The Guardian reports that Iran has partially suspended its nuclear program, while Ahmadinejad says it won’t be stopped, ‘even for a second’.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran announced Sunday that it was partially suspending cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog while hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the latest U.N. sanctions would not halt the country’s uranium enrichment “even for a second.”
Iranian state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying the additional Security Council sanctions imposed on Saturday “stem from the hostility by some powers against Iran.”
“It is not a new issue for the Iranian nation. Enemies of the Iranian nation have made a mistake this time too,” Ahmadinejad said, adding the new sanctions “will not halt Iran’s peaceful nuclear program even for a second.”
Meanwhile, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said the Cabinet on Sunday decided to suspend “code 1-3 of minor arrangements of the safeguards” with the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The suspension would “continue until Iran’s nuclear case is referred back to the IAEA from the U.N Security Council,” Elham said.
Tehran’s scaling back of cooperation with the IAEA was in apparent retaliation for the sanctions unanimously approved by the Security Council over Tehran’s refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that can be used in the production of nuclear weapons.
This appears to be a repeat of Saddam’s laughing about Iraq’s sanctions, playing a cat and mouse game with inspectors, and lying about his intentions.
The question is, even with one of the Iranian hostages warning that the sailors, will the boys be released, or are they going to be used for more propaganda and paraded in front of the world blindfolded?
An American, a former Iranian hostage during the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege in Tehran, fears it will be a long time before the Brit sailors are freed. He was held by them for 444 days.
The seizure of the Britons, along with the sanctions, has heightened tensions between Tehran and the West. Yesterday, Iran’s government said it would limit its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog because of the widening sanctions.
Hermening, 47, said the capture of the British sailors was an act of “desperation” from Iran, intended to give them leverage in wider nuclear talks.
“This is a poor show of force by the Iranian government,” he said.
Hermening was a 20-year-old Marine guard when he was taken hostage by militant Iranian students along with 51 other Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Now a financial planner in Wausau, Wis., he is a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic and believes the United States should support Iranian groups that want “to bring about regime change.” -New York Daily News
