Iran wants talks on its nuclear programme but rejects preconditions demanding it freeze the work, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, just ahead of a UN deadline for Tehran to back down.
The UN Security Council has given Iran until tomorrow to stop enriching uranium. Tehran says the process will only make fuel for power plants but the West suspects Iran wants to refine uranium to the higher degree needed for the core of atom bombs.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards fire a missile from the back of a truck during wargames near Qom, 120 km (75 miles) south of Tehran today
"They tell us 'Come and negotiate on Iran's nuclear issue but the condition is to stop your activities'," Mr Ahmadinejad told a rally, broadcast on state TV. "We have said that we want negotiations and talks but negotiations under just conditions."
The final say rests with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but Mr Ahmadinejad's comments were in line with his and other senior officials'. All have vowed to pursue atomic work.
"If they say that we should close down our fuel production facilities to resume talks, we say fine, but those who enter talks with us should also close down their nuclear fuel production facilities," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
The United States has piled on pressure by sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf and slapping sanctions on some Iranian banks and companies.
Washington has not ruled out military action but says it is seeking a diplomatic solution and is not planning a war.
The BBC quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying contingency planning for any US attack went beyond targeting atomic sites to include most of Iran's military infrastructure.
Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was to meet the head of the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, in Vienna today. Iran has often sought 11th-hour talks before deadlines over its atomic ambitions.
Mr ElBaradei is expected to report to the UN Security Council tomorrow that Tehran has defied a 60-day deadline to suspend enrichment, as demanded in a December 23rd resolution that also banned transfers of technology and know-how to Iran's atomic programme.
Mr ElBaradei said an Iranian refusal could bring tougher penalties.
Mr Larijani said after a meeting in Vienna with Belgium's foreign minister, before his session with Mr ElBaradei, that "we had good talks on reasonable approaches we could take to restart negotiations". He did not elaborate. Belgium has just become a non-permanent member of the Security Council.