Iran vows to produce nuclear fuel despite UN vote

Tue Aug 1, 11:26 AM ET

Iran insists on its right to produce nuclear fuel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday in response to a U.N. resolution demanding that Tehran stop its atomic work.

The Security Council on Monday demanded Iran suspend its nuclear activities by August 31 or face the threat of sanctions.

"The Iranian people see taking advantage of technology to produce nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes as their right," Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the northeastern town of Bojnurd.

Tehran denies Western charges that it is developing nuclear fuel for warheads, insisting its atomic scientists are only working on the peaceful production of electricity.

Iranian officials have said sanctions will harm the West more than Iran by sending oil prices to unmanageable levels.

"Those who think they can use the language of threats and force against Iran are mistaken," Ahmadinejad said in his speech, broadcast live on state television.

However, diplomats and analysts say Iran's economy would be vulnerable to sanctions on industrial components, gasoline imports and European financing.

Before the vote, Iranian parliamentarians said they could respond to a tough U.N. resolution by drafting a bill to follow North Korea out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

However, no such threats have been made since the Security Council approved the resolution on Monday by a 14-1 margin.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday Tehran would stop considering an international package of atomic incentives if the resolution were passed.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Germany approved a package of commercial and technical incentives aimed at getting Tehran to stop making nuclear fuel.

Iran gave itself until August 22 to reply. Western powers deemed this too long and hastened moves to haul Tehran before the Security Council.