Iran Defends Nuclear Ambitions

Official Says Tehran 'Determined' To Pursue Legal Technology

(CBS/AP)  With the world watching its every nuclear step, Iran on Tuesday declared it is "determined" to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment.

Addressing a U.N. conference on the nonproliferation treaty, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said his government is "eager" to provide guarantees its nuclear-fuel program will serve only peaceful purposes, as sought in current negotiations with European governments.

Washington contends Iran's enrichment program is aimed at building nuclear weapons, and U.S. President George W. Bush has proposed banning such technology to all but those countries that already have it.

"It is unacceptable that some intend to limit the access to nuclear technology to an exclusive club of technologically advanced states under the pretext of nonproliferation," Kharrazi said.

The Iranian minister also told delegates from more than 180 nations that the United States and other nuclear-weapons states should make legally binding assurances to non-nuclear states like Iran that they will not be subject to nuclear attack.

In Tehran, meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday the government would resume some nuclear activities — but not uranium enrichment — that have been suspended during talks with European governments to resolve the dispute.

"Iran's threats, made from Tehran, to pursue its nuclear programs, appear to be part of its tough negotiating position at the U.N. Non Proliferation conference," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk from the General Assembly Tuesday.

"The saber rattling is strikingly reminiscent of last June's meeting at the IAEA which resulted in a resolution with no trigger mechanism to send Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council," reported Falk. "The only difference is that the clock is ticking. Between the June 2004 meetings in Vienna and this Treaty conference, Iran keeps developing its program and it is making everyone nervous. The fear is that Iran could follow North Korea and remove itself from the inspections regime."

On Monday, opening day of a monthlong conference reviewing the workings of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, U.S. delegation chief Stephen G. Rademaker demanded that Iran shut down and dismantle its enrichment equipment.

"The treaty is facing the most serious challenge in its history," the assistant secretary of state told delegates from more than 180 nations.

Because of the Iran dispute, treaty members still had not agreed on a complete agenda as of Tuesday morning. Conference organizers reported the Iranians were resisting a reference in the document to "relevant developments" — diplomatic code, in this case, for Iran's nuclear program. Organizers hope to have agreement before the nuts-and-bolts work of committees begins next week.

"The Bush Administration's stern accusation on Monday that Iran conducted secret nuclear weapons programs for decades and continues to break international rules was intended to galvanize the international community," Falk added.

Under the 35-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), states without nuclear arms pledge not to pursue them, in exchange for a commitment by five nuclear powers — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — to move toward nuclear disarmament. Three other nuclear states — Israel, India and Pakistan — remain outside the treaty.