Sunday, March 13, 2005 Posted: 0316 GMT (1116 HKT)
After the United States decided on Friday not to veto the entrance of his country in the World Trade Organization, Iranian president Mohammad Khatami announced that they will temporarily stop the uranium enrichment project.
"We have accepted postponing the activities of uranium enrichment in a voluntary way and only temporarily, even though we have no obligation. We are doing this for moral reasons," he said.
"We are ready to cooperate with the world to give more certainty that Iran is not moving toward the creation of nuclear arms."
The three European countries involved conviced president Bush not to drop the WTO for Theran.
A responsable for the nuclear dialogue between Iran and the other countries, Cyrus Naseri, said the offer was "it is too ridiculous to be called an offer." And he added that, "It is like trading a lion for a mouse," he told CNN. "Would the United States be prepared to give up its own nuclear fuel production against a cargo of pistachios delivered in truckloads?"
During the past months the United States, along with Britain, France and Germany had several meetings to discuss the situation. President Bush seems not to be conviced of the fact that such an oil-rich country really needs a nuclear power plan.
Meanwhile Iran asked Russia to collaborate at this project wich became a reality thanks to Putin's help.
Khatami is now showing that Iran does not want to use the nuclear technology to build warheads, but he also repeated that his country will not give-up this project.
Il Romanaccio at 11:18 AM
