Nuclear programme peaceful: Iran

TheNews
May. 12, 2006

JAKARTA: Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful and has no military purpose, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday, adding he is ready to engage in dialogue with anybody.

In comments later to a university audience, which enthusiastically cheered him, he called Israel a creature of Europe that had no place in the Middle East. In an interview broadcast earlier on local Metro television, Ahmadinejad said of Iran’s nuclear programme: “It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, or military purposes.”

He also said it was “ridiculous” for countries with nuclear arsenals of their own to be pressing Iran to curb its effort to develop nuclear energy. “We also possess the technical and other capabilities to defend our interests,” Ahmadinejad added.

He defended Iran’s nuclear policies again in his speech to some 100 students and 200 guests at the University of Indonesia, where some students displayed banners that said “Iran in our hearts”.

Iran is “ready to engage in dialogue with anybody”, Ahmadinejad said in the Jakarta interview, responding to a question on a letter he sent US President George W Bush. Aside from the nuclear issue, Ahmadinejad’s university talk ranged from suggesting to students they adopt a “can-do” attitude to a fresh attack on Israel, which he has previously said should be eliminated.

“If it’s true that six million Jewish people were killed (in the Holocaust), they were killed in Europe and so why should Israel (be) created in the Middle East,” he asked. “... this regime will soon perish,” he added.