Iran Defies U.N. Deadline On Enrichment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged Wednesday to push ahead with his country's nuclear program, and as a U.N. deadline expired said his people would not bow to Western intimidation.

Ahmadinejad added that it was worth stopping all other development projects in Iran to attain nuclear power, which he said would push his country ahead by 50 years.

"The enemy is making a big mistake if it thinks it can thwart the will of the Iranian nation to achieve the peaceful use of nuclear technology," he was quoted as saying on the official state television web site.

The U.N. has set a Wednesday deadline for Iran to suspend enrichment, a crucial process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.

The West has insisted Iran must suspend enrichment before it will enter any negotiations over its nuclear program — a condition Tehran has staunchly rejected as it pushes ahead with developing its enrichment facilities.

"After allowing the Security Council deadline to pass and on the eve of the International Atomic Energy Agency report of Iran's continued uranium enrichment, Iran is sounding a more defiant tone than ever," says CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, "leaving the Bush administration with the choice of trying to pressure other resistant members of the U.N. to pass tougher sanctions, to implicitly threaten military force, or to negotiate under Iran's terms, none of which are very good options."

Asked about Iran Tuesday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said the U.S. has "no objection to the Iranians having civil, nuclear power. We do have objections to their having the capability to have nuclear weapons."

"Attaining the peaceful use of nuclear technology will push our nation 50 years along the path of progress," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in the northern city of Siahkal. "Corrupt powers should know that the Iranian nation will exploit the advantages of peaceful nuclear technology as soon as possible."

Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful, but the United States and other Western countries accuse it of intending to build weapons.

"To reach nuclear technology, it is worth stopping 10 years worth of the other development projects in the country," he was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday urged the international community to consider tougher sanctions against Iran as the U.N. deadline passed.

"Today is the last day that was designated by the international community and by the UN Security Council," Olmert told a gathering of foreign journalists in Jerusalem. "Therefore the international community will have to think of additional measures."