Iran presidential candidates united on nuclear issue

TEHRAN ( AFP) Ñ The eight candidates standing for president this month may differ on several issues, but when it comes to Iran’s nuclear drive they are united in pursuing what they see as its peaceful atomic ambitions.

Whoever is elected president on June 14 to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic republic is unlikely to alter the course of its controversial program of uranium enrichment.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei takes the key decisions in Iran, including on the nuclear issue.

Western powers believe Iran’s nuclear activities may have a covert military purpose, but Tehran denies this, saying they are entirely peaceful.

“Definitely the result of the presidential election will not have any inßuence on the nuclear issue,” the country’s atomic chief Fereydoun Abbasi Davani has said.

The presidential hopefuls Ñ including the frontrunner, Iran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili Ñ have all insisted that the nuclear project will proceed.

“Regardless of who is elected president in June, uranium enrichment activities will be pursued without fear against the enemy,” Jalili said.

“The president must demonstrate this in a practical manner to the supreme leader,” Jalili, who has been negotiating with world powers on the issue since October 2007, said on his campaign website.

Neither the United States nor Iran’s regional arch-rival Israel has ruled out taking military action against Iranian atomic facilities over fears that they mask a secret nuclear drive, despite the denials.

The nuclear controversy peaked under Ahmadinejad’s two presidential terms, with several rounds of United Nations sanctions and punitive measures by the United States and European Union imposed on Iran.

Since 2003, Tehran has been engaged in talks with not only UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but also with world powers to try to resolve the issue.

Tehran maintains that as a member of the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) it is within its rights to run a nuclear programme to generate electricity and for medical purposes.

Khamenei and other senior officials have repeatedly said that making, owning or using atomic weapons is “haram” Ñ forbidden under Islam.

But such declarations have so far failed to convince world powers whose sanctions are biting down hard on Iran’s oil-dependent economy.

Sanctions have devalued the Iranian rial by around 70 percent and sent inßation soaring above 30 percent, economic woes that formed the crux of a Friday televised presidential debate between the candidates.