German lawmaker: Iran fears latest UN sanctions

Haaretz.com

After meeting with Iranian officials in Tehran last week, Rainer Stinner, of Germany's governing Free Democratic party, says Iran believes the most recent UN sanctions could severely damage Iran's international trade.

A German lawmaker says Iranian officials he met in Tehran fear a severe blow to the country's international trade from the latest round of UN sanctions.

Rainer Stinner, a member of the governing Free Democratic party, told The Associated Press on Monday that the Iranians fear the sanctions will lead to decreased imports and exports.

Stinner met Iranian lawmakers and government representatives last week in Tehran.

He said in a telephone interview from New Delhi that Iranians suppose that these sanctions could have a significant impact on import and export, also because a lack of trade financing.

Iran has recently faced tough new rounds of UN, EU, and U.S. sanctions over fears that Tehran might be seeking to develop nuclear arms. Iran says it aims to produce energy.

Ayatollah aide: We won't give up nuclear program despite U.S. pressure

An Iranian official on Monday said Americans "must be dreaming" if they think they can intimidate Iran into giving up its nuclear program.

Ali Akbar Velayati is an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Velayati said Monday during a trip to Syria that American threats will not deter Iran.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said last week the U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea. Still, Adm. Mike Mullen said the risk of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable.

Foreign Ministry: Bushehr nuclear plant to be inaugurated in September

The joint Iran-Russia nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr in southern Iran will be inaugurated in late September, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Monday.

ILNA news agency quoted him as saying that that all tests and necessary arrangements were currently underway and the plant would be opened in one and a half months.

The spokesman added that the "real fuel" would reach the plant within months after the opening and the complex would then start its operation at "maximum level."

The tests of the 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor have so far been carried out using "virtual fuel" as Bushehr's nuclear fuel remains under International Atomic Energy Agency seals.

The Russians have several times delayed the completion of the plant for various reasons, including political considerations.

Russia has constantly rejected Iran's criticism over the delay and said that the plant was not an ordinary project because Russia came into the project after the plant was first started by a German firm in the mid-1970s and so first had to adapt it to Russian technology.

Iran has received 87 tons of low-enriched uranium from Russia for the plant, sufficient to run it for about three years.

Despite international concerns over Iran's nuclear program, the light-water project in Bushehr is tolerated due to Russia's involvement and guarantees that nuclear fuel for the plant will be delivered from, and the nuclear waste returned to, Russia.