THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2003
Iran vows to pursue transparent nuke programme
AP
BUSHEHR, Iran: Iran insisted that it was pursuing a transparent, albeit ambitious, nuclear programme and rejected US accusations that it had secret plans to produce nuclear weapons.
"There is nothing secret about our nuclear programme. We want to produce 6,000 megawatts of power through nuclear energy by 2020, and we are intent on accomplishing it," the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Assadollah Sabori said.
"We keep all our nuclear facilities open to IAEA inspection," he added.
The White House has rejected Iran's contention that its nuclear programme is for energy and has pointed to the country's possessing some of the largest reserves of oil and natural gas in the world.
"We completely reject Iran's claim that it is doing so (building nuclear reactors) for peaceful purposes," White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer has said.
Sabori rebutted Fleischer's remark.
"The United States has more oil, and Russia has more gas, than Iran. Yet, the United States has 104 and Russia 30 operating nuclear plants respectively. So, why they operate nuclear plants despite rich energy resources?," he said.
Sabori said it was not fair to put Iran under pressure for trying to acquire nuclear technology. He said that when the pro-US Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ruled Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran had plans for 23 nuclear plants even though the country's average annual power consumption was less than 3,000 megawatts.
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