Eurasia Press & News
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that Iran is willing to resolve the dispute on its nuclear program and the European states are expected to restore Iranian confidence for the process. In a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, President Ahmadinejad said that in the past, the European states did not keep the promises they made during the three-year negotiations with Iran. “However, Iran is ready to hold negotiations with the European states to help resolve the dispute,” Ahmadinejad said. President Ahmadinejad said that Iranian nuclear program is transparent and in line with the Safeguards Agreement of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“What we say is that if nuclear energy is something good and useful, then, all the signatory states to NPT should benefit from it, otherwise, no one should have it,” President Ahmadinejad said. The Iranian president recalled delivery of a package of incentives by the Group 5+1 (five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany) last June and said that Iran did not reject the offer immediately as per a request to that effect from Mr. Annan and because Iran advocates dialogue. He said that although Iran was not satisfied with context of the package, it studied it with a positive attitude, but, in return, certain European states and the United States issued anti-Iran resolution.
 On Israeli invasion of Lebanon, President Ahmadinejad said that the United Nations is expected to intensify efforts to enforce ceasefire and withdrawal of the occupying regime of Israel from Lebanese territories. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to take part in collective campaign of the international community to rebuild Lebanon,” the president said. The Iranian president said that the Zionist regime should be made to pay reparation for the damages it inflicted on Lebanon. “The US, Britain which were delaying a resolution to stop Israeli invasion of Lebanon should also pay reparation for their practice of prolonging the process during which Lebanon suffered infrastructure ruin.
“Today, it has become clear that the illegitimate and fake regime of Israel is the root-cause of crisis of the Middle East. The crisis should be resolved in its entirety by allowing the Palestinians to return home and determine their own destiny through democratic elections,” President Ahmadinejad said. Elsewhere in his statement, President Ahmadinejad said that the United Nations is also required to enforce ceasefire and security in Iraq to pave the way for progress of Iraqi people. He said that Iran believes that the occupying forces are behind the unrest in Iraq and their withdrawal and hand-over of security to Iraqi government and democratically-elected parliament would serve to restore peace and security in Iraq.
Annan, for his part, briefed the Iranian president on the latest situation in the Middle East, ceasefire in Lebanon and his efforts to deploy the international forces in Lebanese border with the occupied territories under Zionist regime. On Iranian nuclear program, the UN chief called for redoubling efforts to resolve the dispute through negotiations
