TEHRAN — On the eve of a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the United States, Iran’s supreme leader alleged Sunday that the Americans are falsely accusing the Islamic republic of trying to develop nuclear weapons, state television reported.
The remarks come after President Barack Obama canceled a plan Thursday for a missile shield in Eastern Europe that was officially intended to thwart possible Iranian attacks. Earlier this month, the U.S. representative to the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Iran had enough low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon.
“The U.S. officials who claim that the Iranian missiles are dangerous or that we are seeking to produce atomic bombs know themselves that such statements are false,” said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “We fundamentally reject nuclear weapons and prohibit the use and production of nuclear weapons.”
Khamenei issued a fatwa, a religious edict, against nuclear weapons five years ago.
Iran is scheduled to join world powers, including the United States, at the negotiating table Oct. 1. But Iranian officials have said they have no intention of halting their uranium-enrichment project, a key demand under three sets of U.N. sanctions.
Ahmadinejad, who like other Iranian officials insists that the country’s nuclear program is for peaceful energy use, is due in New York this week to speak at a gathering of the U.N. General Assembly.
Western powers, including the United States, have proposed tougher sanctions if Iran fails to suspend its uranium enrichment. But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with CNN broadcast Sunday that Iran needs “positive motivation,” not sanctions, to prompt cooperation on its nuclear program.
Medvedev confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret visit to Moscow this month and said Israeli officials had assured him that they are not planning a military strike on Iran. Medvedev said any Israeli attack on Iranian facilities would result in “humanitarian disaster, a vast number of refugees, Iran’s wish to take revenge — and not only upon Israel, to be honest, but upon other countries as well.”
