Iran says atomic work has "no reverse gear"

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran had "no reverse gear" on its way to mastering the technology to make nuclear fuel, voicing fresh defiance before major powers meet to discuss the dispute. An Iranian deputy foreign minister echoed the tough talk, saying the Islamic Republic, which is accused by the West of trying to build nuclear weapons, was ready for any possible scenario "even for war". The United States insists it wants a diplomatic solution to the row but has not ruled out military action if that fails. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Saturday Washington and its allies must curb Iran's atomic ambitions. "Iran has obtained the technology to produce nuclear fuel and Iran's move is like a train ... which has no brake and no reverse gear," Ahmadinejad was quoted by Iran's student news agency ISNA as saying. Officials from the Security Council plus Germany are due to meet in London in the coming days to examine the chances of drafting a resolution that could impose more restrictions on Tehran. U.N. sanctions were slapped on Iran in December.
"We have prepared ourselves for any situation, even for war," Manouchehr Mohammadi, one of the deputies to the foreign minister, was quoted by ISNA as saying at a conference in the central city of Isfahan. "If they issue a second resolution, Iran will not respond and will continue its nuclear activities," he said.
The Iranian people are vigilant and will defend all their rights to the end,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech carried by the ISNA news agency. The announcement of the launch, made on state-run television, appeared to refer to Iran’s efforts to launch commercial satellites into orbit. Iran’s Science and Technology and Defense ministries built the craft, the state-run television quoted Mohsen Bahrami, the head of Iran’s Space Research Center, as saying. Mr Bahrami provided no other details beyond saying that Iran had successfully launched what he called a space rocket or space missile. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, the defence minister was quoted by a newspaper as saying: “Building a satellite and satellite launcher, as well as (previously) launching the first Iranian satellite called Sina with Russian cooperation, and becoming a member of the space club, are part of the Defence Ministry’s plans.” Iran in the past has announced that it wanted to be able to send its own satellites, including commercial ones, into orbit. But it has revealed little information about the project. In 2005, Iran launched its first such satellite in a joint project with Russia. Iran hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010, the government has said, to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80 million from 22 million. It also hopes to expand its satellite capabilities to let Internet users to rise to 35 million from 5.5 million in the next five years. Science and Technology Minister Mohammad Soleimani said today that Iran would speed up its space program, the official IRNA news agency reported. “Investment in space is very serious and requires time, but we are trying to speed this up,” IRNA quoted Soleimani as saying.