Iran today shrugged off mounting world pressures over its nuclear programme and gave no hint it was ready to halt sensitive atomic work to help next week's talks on a Russian compromise.
"Nuclear technology is our red line and we will never abandon our legitimate right to this technology," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads Iran's top legislative watchdog, told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran.
"They [the West] are trying to terrify us with a scarecrow called the Security Council. We are not scared. . . . They will be harmed more than Iran if they act unwisely," he said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to the Security Council earlier this month for failing to quell suspicions it is seeking nuclear bombs. The council is awaiting a report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in March before taking any action.
Germany, Britain and France have sought to persuade Iran not to resume atomic fuel activities so as to build confidence that its renunciation of nuclear military ambitions is genuine.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he shared the view expressed by his French counterpart yesterday that Iran was pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, but he acknowledged this was a suspicion the IAEA had yet to confirm.
The United States has spoken of rallying support for sanctions against Iran, but other veto-wielding members of the Security Council, such as Russia and China, are wary of this.