Iran ready for ‘honest’ N-cooperation

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Tehran is ready for nuclear cooperation but expects parties to the talks to fulfill their previous obligations.

Addressing crowds in the northeastern city of Mashhad on Thursday, Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to cooperate with other countries in developing its nuclear energy program as ‘conditions for nuclear cooperation on the international level have been provided’.

“We welcome the exchange of fuel, technical cooperation and construction of power plants and reactors and we are prepared to cooperate [in these areas].”

The Iranian president added, however, that Tehran expected those countries that were parties to the talks to ‘fulfill their previous obligations.’

“We have nuclear contracts. It has been 30 years. We have paid for them…such agreements must be fulfilled … for technical activities, for reactors and power plants. If we intend to cooperate, such contracts must be addressed and the previous commitments must be fulfilled.”

Ahmadinejad said that obtaining fuel for the Tehran reactor was an opportunity to evaluate the ‘honesty’ of certain countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

He added that Iran has arrived at an important juncture in its nuclear work and that it would not retreat in the least from its nuclear rights.

Due to Iran’s resistance, Western countries have changed their stance from that of ‘confrontation to interaction’, Ahmadinejad said.

“Once they told us to stop [nuclear work]. Now they express readiness to cooperate with us in exchange of fuel, expansion of the technology and construction of power plants and atomic reactors.”

The Iranian president also called on the US to change its policy in the Middle East region and stop supporting Israel.

He said the US had to choose between saving its image and supporting the Zionist regime.