Iran 'won't be intimidated'
2006-01-23 21:50
Tehran - Iran said on Monday it would not be "intimidated by threats" and vowed to defend what it insists is a right to master nuclear technology.
"There is nothing to worry about because we will not be intimated by threats," government spokesperson Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.
"The Islamic republic is sufficiently strong on the economic, political and moral fronts to defend its power and its rights.
"Iran will not back away from its right to master civil nuclear technology."
Western powers are furious at Iran for resuming enrichment research work earlier this month, and are pushing for the case to be referred to the UN security council.
Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to the levels required for reactor fuel, but the same technology can be extended to make nuclear weapons.
Tehran insists such work is legal given it has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.