TEHRAN, June 16 — Iran announced on Wednesday its readiness for conditional nuclear talks while saying the country is intending to expand its nuclear activities.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is in favor of dialogue over its nuclear program but has conditions to be announced soon, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"We say that Iran is in favor of dialogue (over its nuclear program), but we have conditions to talk with them (Western countries)," Ahmadinejad said, adding "we will announce our conditions soon."
"They need to talk to Iran in a new atmosphere and they have no other way … If they think (by these sanctions), they can show sticks to the Iranians, the Iranian nation will annihilate all these sticks," the Iranian president was quoted by the semi- official ISNA news agency on Wednesday.
He called UN Security Council's last week sanction resolution as a "political game" and said "you (powers) made a move and now it is Iran's turn (to make a move)," according to Fars.
Last week, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear program.
Stressing the "peaceful" nature of Iran's nuclear program, Iran 's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Wednesday that Iran is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) and a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatory, and will not pursue non-peaceful activities, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Mehmanparast said in the past 21 reports offered by the IAEA, no proof has been mentioned, so referral of Iran nuclear issue to the UN Security Council is not justifiable.
Referring to the enrichment of high-grade uranium in Iran, Mehmanparast argued that it is totally clear that production of 20 percent enriched uranium is for peaceful purposes.
"Everybody knows that 20 percent enrichment is for peaceful purposes," Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by IRNA.
On Wednesday the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization ( AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran will build another nuclear reactor for research use, which is designed to be "more powerful" than the Tehran reactor, state IRIB TV reported.
"The design of this nuclear reactor will be completed by the end of this year and it needs two more years for the reactor to be constructed," Salehi was quoted as saying Tehran has decided to launch reactors in different parts of the country and export the produced isotopes to the regional and Islamic countries which are in dire need of the drugs, he said.
On the country's technical achievements in nuclear industry, he said "we have (already) acquired the technical know-how for the production of nuclear fuel for Tehran reactor and at the beginning of next year we will produce the first experimental fuel plate," according to IRIB TV.
Iran says that West has failed to provide Tehran Research Reactor with the nuclear fuel rods it needed; hence Iran attempted to produce the fuel itself.
Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Larijani criticized the West for their failure to deliver fuel to the Tehran Research Reactor and called on the government for the extension of Iran's uranium enrichment to a base level of 20 percent, Press TV reported on Wednesday.
He also criticized the West for putting together a new round of punitive measure against Iran and described such pressures as " unjustified."
