Iran will soon unveil “big new” nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Feb. 11 while reiterating Tehran’s readiness to revive talks with the West over the country’s controversial nuclear programme. Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran as tens of thousands of Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy and brought Islamic clerics to power.
“Within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Tehran’s famous Azadi, or Freedom, square. Iran has said it is forced to manufacture nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, on its own since international sanctions ban it from buying them on foreign markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod.
“Iran is ready for talks within the framework of equality and justice,” Ahmadinejad repeated on said Saturday but warned that Tehran “will never enter talks if enemies behave arrogantly.”
Before Ahmadinejad spoke, visiting Hamas prime minister from Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, also addressed the gathering, congratulating Iranians on the 1979 anniversary and vowing that his Palestinian group would never recognise Iran’s and Hamas’ archenemy, Israel.