Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a looming UN deadline for Iran
to suspend uranium enrichment, saying it would not halt the sensitive nuclear activity as a precondition to talks.
"We are in favour of dialogue. But in order for us to talk they are imposing a condition that would deprive us of our right," Ahmadinejad said Tuesday in a public rally in Rasht, the capital of the northern Gilan province.
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His comments come ahead of the expiry this week of the latest UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work as well as a UN watchdog report Friday on its compliance with this demand.
"We say to them (the West): how can your enrichment factories continue to work when you are asking for a suspension of our activities?" he said in the speech broadcast on state television.
Ahmadinejad told the crowd of thousands the only scenario where Iran could halt enrichment was if other nuclear powers suspended the process themselves.
"If they say that our nuclear production plant and its fuel cycle should be shut down, this is no problem. But justice necessitates that those who want to negotiate should halt their own nuclear fuel cycles!" he said.
"The day that Iranians can use nuclear fuel and its production cycle fully in the agriculture, medicine and other areas, will be a big leap in the life of Iranian people," added Ahmadinejad.
"If they think they can create division among Iranians with their bullying, attempts and plots, they should know they are 100-percent wrong.
"Iranians have been standing strong and will defend their nuclear rights until the end."
The United States accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its atomic programme is peaceful in nature.
Although Washington has said it wants the nuclear standoff resolved through diplomacy, it has never ruled out military action to thwart Iran's atomic drive.
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