China Daily: Iran's Khamenei remains defiant

Yo, infidels!

In July, Iranian photographer Mortea uploaded the photograph of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the left to his Flickr.com photo album. Today the the China Daily published an AP story about Iran's nuke enrichment program, without comment:

Iran does not intend to build nuclear weapons, but it will continue to enrich uranium because it does not want to be dependent on others for its nuclear fuel needs, the country's supreme ruler said Friday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told tens of thousands of worshippers at Tehran University that Western allegations his country is secretly trying to make weapons are "a propaganda trick to deceive their own public opinion."

"They (the West) speak as if Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and they oppose it," said Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters. "I've said it repeatedly that we are not seeking nuclear weapons."

Rather, Tehran wants to enrich uranium to low levels to use in reactors that will generate electricity, he said.

Khamenei said Iran's next step will be to build nuclear power plants without outside help. Russia currently is putting the finishing touches on a new nuclear power plant in Bushehr on the shores of the Persian Gulf in southern Iran. It is expected to be operational by August 2006.

"We want to enrich our own uranium explored from our own mines with equipment and technology that belongs to ourselves developed by our young scientists to produce fuel for our nuclear power plants," Khamenei said.