Larijani: US doesn't want us to progress
Photo: Reuters
Iran threatens to spur uranium enrichment
If Obama continues to threaten more sanctions Iran will speed up nuclear plan, says Ali Larijani
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned Friday that his country would spur the enrichment of its uranium if US President Barack Obama continued to threaten it with more sanctions, Iranian news agencies reported Friday.
"Even if Obama threatens ten more times to increase the sanctions against us, we will still be determined to continue our enrichment program, only we will speed it up," he said.
On Wednesday Obama responded to reports that Iran would enrich uranium to 20 percent purity by announcing that Washington would prepare a plan to increase sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
But Larijani reiterated the country's claim that its nuclear program was intended for peaceful purposes.
"Every time we have a breakthrough, whether it is with the launching of a satellite or a technological achievement, they immediately dramatize it and say that it is intended for military or espionage purposes," the parliament spokesman said.
"But their real problem is actually the fact that our status in the international community is only changing for the better. They cannot stand to see us progress; they want us to be an underdeveloped country."
