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Ahmadinejad challenges Bush to debate
Reuters
Tehran: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday voiced defiance and challenged US President George W. Bush to a televised debate as a deadline neared for Iran to halt work the West fears is a step toward building nuclear bombs.
"Peaceful nuclear energy is the right of the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation has chosen that based upon international regulations, it wants to use it and no one can stop it," he told a news conference.
The White House said Ahmadinejad's call for the debate was a "diversion" from concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.
Ahmadinejad said Iran had laid out a framework for talks in its reply to an offer by six world powers of incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment.
That framework provided an "exceptional opportunity" to solve the nuclear dispute. Asked specifically if Iran would halt enrichment, he said: "In that [Iran's response to the six-nation offer] we announced that any kind of dialogue should be based upon the certain rights of the Iranian nation."
He brushed off calls by the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, for sanctions if Tehran ignores the deadline.
At the United Nations, Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry said yesterday Iran's refusal to comply with a UN demand to freeze its uranium enrichment activities by tomorrow is expected to be taken up by the Security Council in mid-September.
Reuters
Tehran: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday voiced defiance and challenged US President George W. Bush to a televised debate as a deadline neared for Iran to halt work the West fears is a step toward building nuclear bombs.
"Peaceful nuclear energy is the right of the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation has chosen that based upon international regulations, it wants to use it and no one can stop it," he told a news conference.
The White House said Ahmadinejad's call for the debate was a "diversion" from concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.
Ahmadinejad said Iran had laid out a framework for talks in its reply to an offer by six world powers of incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment.
That framework provided an "exceptional opportunity" to solve the nuclear dispute. Asked specifically if Iran would halt enrichment, he said: "In that [Iran's response to the six-nation offer] we announced that any kind of dialogue should be based upon the certain rights of the Iranian nation."
He brushed off calls by the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, for sanctions if Tehran ignores the deadline.
At the United Nations, Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry said yesterday Iran's refusal to comply with a UN demand to freeze its uranium enrichment activities by tomorrow is expected to be taken up by the Security Council in mid-September.
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