Saudi Prince Slams Iran’s Nuclear Program

The Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States denounced Iran's uranium enrichment program, but also criticized U.S. policy toward countries seeking nuclear weapons as inconsistent. Iran's pursuit of a nuclear program is worsening tension in the Middle East, Saudi Prince Turki Faisal said in a speech late Wednesday.

"It escalates the tensions, and brings about competition which is unneeded and unnecessary and uncalled for," Prince Turki told an audience of about 250 political and business leaders in a speech organized by the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations.

Turki, 60, questioned the use of possessing weapons he said the Iranian people would never allow their leaders to use.

"Where is Iran going to use these weapons?" he asked.

"If their intention is to bomb Israel, then they will kill Palestinians, Syrians, Jordanians and Saudis, as well.

"If they intend to bomb the United States, for example, they will kill other people, as well. Where is the value of having a weapon of destruction that people know you are not going to use?"

Prince Turki said Iranians support their government's uranium enrichment program partially because they see a double standard in U.S. policy.

"They see the U.S. government negotiating with North Korea ... and they see the U.S. signing a nuclear peace agreement with India ... and they see the U.S. turning a blind eye completely to Israel, although Israel has the most nuclear weapons in our part of the world," he said.

Faisal called on U.S. officials to advocate a totally nuclear-free Middle East instead of picking and choosing whose nuclear programs to oppose.

On Thursday, Iran reaffirmed its commitment to a peaceful nuclear programs dismissed U.S. threats of military action as "no more real than a vampire's teeth."

"On the Iranian nuclear issue, we have always been clear in our action, and in Iran all of its nuclear [programs] have a peaceful mission," Iranian Vice President Esfandyar Rahim Mashaee said here after meeting with his Indonesian counterpart.

"We are not afraid of attacks by the United States or by other countries on Iran's nuclear installations because we have nothing to hide, we have no installations to produce nuclear weapons," he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week Washington would not rule out using military force against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Mashaee described Rumsfeld as "Dracula" and said threats of military action against Iran "are all lies and mere tough words."

Kalla said that Indonesia opposed any military action against the Islamic Republic based simply on suspicion that Tehran was attempting to acquire nuclear weapons.

The United Nations' atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, voted on Saturday for its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, to report by March 6 on Iran's response to demands that it suspend nuclear enrichment activities and improve cooperation with nuclear inspectors. Jakarta abstained during the vote.

Meanwhile, China said it welcomed talks between Iran and Russia next week on plans to defuse the nuclear crisis.

"We hope that this Russian invitation to Iran to hold talks on the 16th about participating in an international uranium enrichment centre will help break, or encourage a break, in the current stalemate over the Iranian nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a regular news conference.

The deputy head of Iran's National Security Council would lead Tehran's delegation to the talks in Moscow next week, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported earlier.

The meeting will discuss a Kremlin proposal to process fuel for Iran's nuclear stations on Russian soil, offering Tehran a way to pursue atomic power but restricting any moves to divert radioactive fuel to weapons.

Asked about Russian reports that China may also attend, Kong said China had not received a formal invitation and he refused to say how China would respond if asked.

But he said China still hoped the nuclear standoff could be solved through "peaceful negotiation." - Agencies