Iran approved for the first time on Wednesday that newly imposed sanctions "may slow down" its nuclear drive, including its receptive uranium enrichment work, but said it will not halt it. The comments by the head of Iran's atomic energy, Ali Akbar Salehi, were the first permission by a senior official of the impact of new UN sanctions imposed on June 9. "One cannot say sanctions are unproductive," Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Salehi as telling a press conference in the southern port city of Bushehr.
"If sanctions are expected at preventing Iran's nuclear activities. We say they may slow down the work, but will not stop the behavior. This is a certainty." Previously senior officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had been defiant in their release of the new sanctions. Speaking soon after the UN Security Council adopts the original measures, Ahmadinejad said they were like a "used hanky which should be thrown in the dustbin."
Salehi, who is one of some vice presidents in Ahmadinejad's government, said the sanctions would not affect a nuclear power station nearing end in Bushehr, which he visited on Wednesday. But he said there could be some impact on Iran's uranium enrichment programme as it would now be more hard to procure some equipment. "The Bushehr site is not by the sanctions and Russian officials have frequently maintained that the sanctions are not targeting Bushehr," he said after inspect the Russian-built plant, which he said would open in September.
"If sanctions are expected at preventing Iran's nuclear activities. We say they may slow down the work, but will not stop the behavior. This is a certainty." Previously senior officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had been defiant in their release of the new sanctions. Speaking soon after the UN Security Council adopts the original measures, Ahmadinejad said they were like a "used hanky which should be thrown in the dustbin."
Salehi, who is one of some vice presidents in Ahmadinejad's government, said the sanctions would not affect a nuclear power station nearing end in Bushehr, which he visited on Wednesday. But he said there could be some impact on Iran's uranium enrichment programme as it would now be more hard to procure some equipment. "The Bushehr site is not by the sanctions and Russian officials have frequently maintained that the sanctions are not targeting Bushehr," he said after inspect the Russian-built plant, which he said would open in September.
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