Ahmad Khatami, a senior Iranian cleric, said Iran would continue uranium enrichment and dismissed international calls to suspend the program as “irrelevant.”
Ahmad Khatami, a Tehran Friday prayer lmam, said Iran did not seek nuclear energy to build an atomic bomb and was not afraid of the United States.
“Iran does not want nuclear energy for an atomic bomb,” Khatami said, adding that calls for a voluntary suspension of enrichment were “an irrelevant statement.”
He said Iran’s opposition to nuclear weapons was based on religious principles, while insisting the country would not give up its nuclear program.