Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Not Back Down on Nuclear Program - Voice of America

Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Not Back Down on Nuclear Program - Voice of America
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-01-voa65.cfm

Iran's president has vowed to use force against what he calls "enemies" who want to curtail his nation's controversial nuclear program. State television reported President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments Friday, just ahead of a deadline for Iran to respond to a Western deal on its nuclear program. The United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia have given Iran until Saturday to accept an incentives package in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment activities, or risk additional sanctions. On Thursday, Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said no firm deadline had been set. It was not clear whether Western diplomats plan to stick firmly to Saturday's deadline. President Ahmadinejad said Friday that his country's so-called "foes" are using the nuclear issue as an excuse to provoke Iran. Western nations accuse Iran of enriching uranium in order to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The UN Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran for defying international demands to suspend enrichment.

Physicist: Iran on Brink of Nuclear Arms - Olivia Ward, Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/471577

Iran is divided over producing nuclear weapons. But with political will, it could acquire them in the next two years, warns Akbar Etemad, a founder of Tehran's atomic energy program in the 1970s. And, he says, the ambition to acquire a bomb goes back further than Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the days of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a former ally of the United States. "For now, it all depends on the priorities," said Etemad, who was in Toronto yesterday attending a conference on Iranian studies. "My understanding is that the group of mullahs aren't much in agreement (on developing nuclear weapons). It depends on how the forces play out among them."

Iran Builds Bombs at its Peril - Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph opinion
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/08/01/do0106.xml

Has Israel just taken a step closer to bombing Iran? That will certainly be the main subject of discussion in Jerusalem this weekend as Israelis digest the surprise announcement by their prime minister, Ehud Olmert, that he is to stand down in September. And if the Iranians have any sense, they should take note of the important changes taking place in Jerusalem.