Iran Sunday said disputes over its nuclear program could be
settled in the coming weeks if the UN Security Council dropped
preparations to debate another round of sanctions against the
Islamic Republic and turn over its case to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA).
The announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali
Hosseini comes after an official in Spain said Iran had pledged to
end years of stonewalling and provide answers about past suspicious
nuclear activities to the IAEA, the UN nuclear monitoring
agency.
"Regarding some past ambiguities, which the agency has
mentioned, if reviewing of Iran's nuclear issue returns to the
agency we will reach a compromise within several weeks," Hosseini
told reporters at his weekly news conference in Teheran.
Also on Sunday,?Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon,
the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah
showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime
(Israel) had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button
to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist
regime," IRNA quoted him as saying.
"God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction
of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying
during a speech to foreign guests who attended ceremonies marking
the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
who is known as the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has lost public
support after Israel failed to achieve its goals during last
summer's 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon - freeing
two captured soldiers and crushing the militant group.
(China Daily via agencies June 4, 2007)
