Iranian President Mohammed Khatami pledged on Tuesday to forge ahead with the construction of a nuclear power plant, but rejected claims that it might be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Khatami, who is visiting Pakistan, said Iran would be happy to send any spent fuel rods a potential source of fissionable material abroad for reprocessing. "We have no problem with sending the nuclear waste and uranium waste to other countries," Khatami told a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. "We are not insisting on keeping them in Iran, where they could also pose an environmental problem."
"We are very happy that we are going to have that nuclear power plant in Iran, and we are going to develop it for energy and peaceful purposes, I repeat, peaceful purposes," Khatami said in response to a reporter's question.
Khatami noted that "we believe that atomic and nuclear arms are not going to ensure the peace and security of any country," but that instead of focusing on recently emerged nuclear powers like Pakistan another target of U.S. criticism should turn their attention to Israel.
"We believe that these countries should press the Zionist regime in Israel, which has been rumored to have hundreds of nuclear weapons ... and which is a threat to international peace and security," Khatami said. (Albawaba.com)
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