Iran's nuke plans 'no threat'

Munich: Iran's nuclear programme is not a threat to Israel and the country is prepared to settle all outstanding issues with the atomic watchdog within three weeks, its top nuclear negotiator said on Sunday.

Ali Larijani, speaking at a forum that gathered the world's top security officials, said Iran doesn't have aggressive intentions toward any nation.

"That Iran is willing to threaten Israel is wrong," Larijani said. "We pose no threat and if we are conducting nuclear research and development we are no threat to Israel. We have no intention of aggression against any country."

In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev dismissed Larijani's comments, saying Iran's government was trying to convince the international community that their intentions are benign.

"The fact is that they have failed in this attempt and there is a wall-to-wall consensus that the Iranian nuclear programme is indeed military and aggressive and a threat to world peace." Iran insists it will not give up uranium enrichment, saying it is pursuing the technology only to generate energy. The United States and some of its allies fear the Islamic republic is more interested in enrichment's other application - creating the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

No evidence

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led by Mohammad Al Baradei, has said it has found no evidence that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

But the UN's nuclear watchdog agency has suspended some aid to Iran and criticised the country for concealing certain nuclear activities and failing to answer questions about its programme. "I have written to Al Baradei to say we are ready to within three weeks to have the modality to solve all the outstanding issues with you," Larijani said at the forum.

There was no response from the Vienna-based IAEA, whose offices were closed for the weekend. Iran has previously said it would resolve all outstanding issues with the agency but conditioned it on sanctions being lifted. And it has remained firm on rejecting the main Security Council demand - suspension of enrichment.

In a wide-ranging speech, Larijani blamed the US occupation of Iraq for fomenting terrorism in the region, and said Tehran's influence was having a stabilising effect on the situation in that country.