Iran to expose nuclear traitors

by Daily Times

TEHRAN: Irans president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday threatened to expose “traitors” who he said were pressuring the government over its nuclear ambitions, the state news agency IRNA reported.

“If the internal elements do not stop pressures over the nuclear issue they will be exposed to the Iranian people,” Ahmadinejad said at Tehran’s Elm-o-Sanat (Science and Industry) university. “These are traitors and, in accordance with the vows we have taken to the nation, we will not back down and be onlookers,” he told students. According to the Fars news agency,

Govt under pressure: Ahmadinejad said his government was under pressure from people “who met with foreigners every week and told the enemies why they were backing down and postponing (UN) resolutions.”

Iran is under two sets of UN Security Council sanctions for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the process which makes nuclear fuel and, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Tehran denies Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is cover for a drive to develop a bomb, insisting that it is aimed solely at generating electricity for a growing population once fossil fuels run out.

Ahmadinejad also accused his critics of intervening on behalf of a suspected spy. “Right now they have pressured the judge in a case to acquit a spy.

The Iranian nation will not allow a minority to save the offenders from people’s vengeance by using their political and economic influence,” he said.

Ahmadinejad did not name any individuals but his attacks appeared to be aimed at former nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian who was briefly detained in May on national security-related accusations. Moussavian, who is a close ally of Rafsanjani, was accused of leaking information to a foreign embassy. He was released on bail but the case is not closed.

“We are tolerating them due to some sensitivities but when the nuclear question ends, we will express all issues in a student circle,” Ahmadinejad said, speaking at the university where he used to study and teach before becoming president.

Germany, France agree on Iran: French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Germany and France agree that Iran must not acquire a nuclear weapon, after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel here. “We are on the same wavelength: no nuclear weapons for Iran,” Sarkozy told reporters.

Merkel said that the two countries had the same approach to the dispute with Tehran, saying that a new round of United Nations sanctions may be necessary to stop Iran from pursuing uranium enrichment.

Sarkozy and Merkel each held talks with US President George W Bush last week that concluded with calls for a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Tehran over its sensitive nuclear work. afp