Khamenei says US, Britain will fail to isolate Iran: TV

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Ahmadinejad is best US recruiter in Gulf: Petraeus
Washington (AFP) Dec 6, 2009 - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is driving worried Gulf countries into US arms with his threats to expand Tehran's suspect nuclear program, the top American general in the region said Sunday. "President Ahmadinejad and the Irani (Iranian) leaders continue to be the best recruiters for Central Command as we embark on our partnership plans," General David Petraeus said on Fox News. "They've caused enormous worry and concern by those on the western side of the Gulf," said Petraeus, the head of US Central Command. He also said most experts question Iran's ability to build 10 more uranium enrichment plants -- "or anything remotely approaching that" -- as the Iranian leader threatened last week.

Ahmadinejad issued the threat after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, censured it for building a second undeclared uranium enrichment plant, which the United States fears is aimed at producing fissile material for nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad, spurning a Western offer for foreign countries to enrich its uranium for a research nuclear reactor in Tehran, has gone on to vow that Iran would enrich its uranium stockpile to 20 percent on its own. James Jones, the US national security adviser, said in an interview on CNN, meanwhile, that the "clock is ticking" on a US offer to engage Iran in negotiations. "The door is still open. But unfortunately the picture Iran is painting is not a good one. But we are still open to negotiations," he said, calling the Western proposal on uranium enrichment "fair, very reasonable."

by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) Dec 6, 2009
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out Sunday at the US and Britain, labelling them Tehran's main "enemies" and warning they will fail to isolate Iran over its nuclear issue, a report said.

"Americans are at the head of the list of enemies and the British are the most awful of them," state television reported Khamenei as saying in an address to thousands of people to mark a major Shiite ceremony.

"Americans, Zionists and other oppressive powers tried to isolate Iran for the past 30 years, but they failed and with God's help they will also fail in the future," Khamenei said in reaction to sustained Western threats to isolate Iran over its controverisal atomic programme.

Khamenei, Iran's all-powerful leader who has the final say in all national issues, said Western powers led by Washington are lying when they claim Tehran's nuclear programme is aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

"We ask them to stop lying and as we have said in the past the Iranian nation is pursuing nuclear technology and if we do not achieve it today, then tomorrow when the world economy is driven by nuclear power we will be late," the cleric said, re-asserting that Iran's nuclear intent is entirely peaceful.

"The Iranian nation wants to achieve it so that it does not have to beg to Westerners 20 or 30 years later. But the Westerners through the false campaign are preventing us from getting it."

He also said that when the "oppressive powers fail to achieve their goal against a country through threats of military action or sanctions, then they start saying that there is a division inside that country.

"We have to be careful as the enemy will launch propoganda to say that there is division."

Tension over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme has peaked in recent weeks after it rejected a high-profile nuclear deal brokered by the UN atomic watchdog and also announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants.

World powers object to Tehran's uranium enrichment programme as the process can be used to enrich the material to produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or to make atomic bomb.

On Saturday, Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi in fact said Tehran needs 20 uranium enrichment plants to produce fuel enough to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity.

Iran's main flagship enrichment plant is in the central city of Natanz where it processes uranium in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions.

It is also building a second plant near the Shiite holy city of Qom, much to the dislike of world powers, some of whom have threatened to levy a new set of sanctions on Iran.

But Iranian officials have vowed to continue with the enrichment programme and have dismissed threats of sanctions.

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Washington (UPI) Dec 4, 2009
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