Iran “does not need nuclear arms”- Ahmadinejad

At a news conference in the Iranian capital, President MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD has said that his country does not need nuclear weapons, the BBC reported.

NUCLEAR weapons were needed only by people who "want to solve everything through the use of force," the IRANIAN PRESIDENT, whom the West accuse of being a hardliner, said Saturday.

“You can use nuclear technology in several ways, and we want to do so peacefully.”

Referring to an announcement by the EU that talks with Tehran had reached a dead-end, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “They came and said lets negotiate, and we said fine, lets negotiate. Now they come and say lets not negotiate, so we also say lets not negotiate”.

“What is this that you say? … Do you think that you are fooling a kid?”the President said in an address to EU states.

“The time has come that the West carry out confidence-building measures”, Ahmadinejad said, adding, “The Iranian nation will not accept any threats”.

Nejad’s remarks come amidst increasing threats from the U.S. backed by the European Union to refer the Islamic Republic to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

A growing number of countries have recently expressed support to the U.S. efforts to send Iran’s NUCLEAR dossier to the UNSC to impose sanctions due to the Islamic Republic's persistence not to give up its right under the NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY to pursue nuclear technology.

Yesterday Iran, which asserts that its NUCLEAR PROGRAM is solely aimed at peaceful purposes and denies claims it is covertly seeking to develop weapons, threatened to end its cooperation with the UN inspectors and limit international monitoring of its nuclear activities if it was referred to the United Nations.

Although Washington, backed by the EU-big states; UK, France and Germany threatens to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, Mr. AHMADINEJAD dismisses the prospect.

The EU and the BUSH administration seek to persuade members of UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to consent their decision of referring Iran to the Council.

Representatives from the European Union, Russia, China and Washington are due to meet in UK on Monday to set a date for the crucial IAEA meeting.

Although Russia has not ruled out a referral, it says that there’s still a chance for trying diplomacy with Iran.

China on the other hand, is expected to oppose tough sanctions. On Friday, its UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said that referring Iran to the UNSC "might complicate the issue."

But even if all agreed on the need for sanctions, the question of how to punish Iran is difficult.

Full economic sanctions killed “a lot of civilians, and nobody wants that," said David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector in Iraq and now the head of the Institute for Science and International Security.

Imposing sanctions on Iraq during SADDAM's rule resulted in civilian suffering and led to the UN oil for food program -- an anti-sanction measure approved by the same powers that imposed the sanction in the first place.