To: mishedlo who wrote (52090 ) 6/5/2006 11:11:38 PM From: shades Respond to Iran says it has a right to generate atomic energy and insists its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but the United States and most of its allies think it has a covert weapons program. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday, offered Tehran incentives in return for ending its nuclear program. Iranian officials have not responded directly to the offer, but Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated in a nationally televised speech yesterday that Iran will not give up its right to produce nuclear fuel. "If you make any mistake, definitely shipment of energy from this region will be seriously jeopardized. You have to know this," he added in what was seen as a warning to Washington against military action. Many Iranians also remain defiant in the face of looming sanctions. Some argued that shortages were a way of life during the 1980s, when the eight-year Iran-Iraq war led to Iran's international isolation and a rationing regime. The announcement in April that Iran has mastered the nuclear cycle played to nationalist sentiments, making many Iranians feel their country has attained a level of technological sophistication that allows it to take its place alongside the West's advanced nation-states. However, not all Iranians support the nuclear program. There is a significant silent minority who say that, although it is their country's right to generate nuclear energy under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it could come at a high cost. "What's the point of us having nuclear energy if we're deprived of everything else?"
