TEHRAN, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Iran will continue to pursue a civilian nuclear-energy program and Western pressure designed to force the Islamic Republic to renounce its projects will not produce any results, the president said Friday.
"The government and people of Iran have the firm intention to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and will not give up its right," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a statement.
The foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany met in Vienna Thursday, where the threat of military action against Tehran was averted.
"The main reason for the West obstructing the implementation of our legal right is not because over fears of the proliferation of nuclear weapons as they claim, but that Iranian achievements in cutting-edge technologies will open the way to such technologies for all independent countries and will strengthen the Islamic world," the president said.
Ahmadinejad added, "If nuclear energy is something bad, than all countries should refuse to use it."
The Vienna meeting resulted in an agreement that the UN Security Council would freeze all its activities regarding the Iranian problem if Iran suspended uranium enrichment in compliance with decisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tehran would not be issued an ultimatum on when to respond to the Iran Six's proposal, but that it should respond in several weeks.
"There is no categorical deadline. But I think we are talking about several weeks," he said, adding that he had been surprised by reports that Iran would face a deadline of seven days to respond.
