Iran refused to abandon its illicit nuclear materials production program, with an obstinate statement issued by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to the International Herald Tribune.
Fears that Iran might build nuclear weapons and launch them on missiles aimed at Europe or the United States are the driving force behind plans for a European Missile Defense system that would be installed in the Czech Republic and Poland, based on the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense system in Alaska and California.
Ahmadinejad said Iran won’t give up a single iota of its nuclear rights, even as a Saturday deadline arrived for Iran to abandon the production program or suffer sanctions in addition to those already in place.
Western leaders fear that Iran will use the nuclear materials to build nuclear weapons to mount atop its ever longer-range missiles, rather than to fuel nuclear power plants as Iran claims.
Ahmadinejad previously said Israel should be wiped from the map, and that Israel soon shall cease to exist.
Iran has fired multiple missiles in salvo tests, fired a missile from a submerged submarine, and said it is embarked upon a space program, which involves many of the same technologies as intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Ahmadinejad made his remarks as he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who discussed the Iranian nuclear production program, a diplomatic mission requested by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
But rather than agree to halt the nuclear materials production program, Ahmadinejad stiff-armed such suggestions. While he is open to more negotiations with the West on the production program, he also indicated that Iran never will give up its insistence on continuing the nuclear work.
Some European leaders are growing weary with Iranian tactics, saying they amount to stalling for time while Iranian nuclear materials production continues.
Meanwhile, U.S. talks with Israeli leaders were held, including discussions between Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
While Rice and President Bush would like to see Israel and Palestinians conclude a peace agreement before he leaves office in January, those hopes were dashes when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he will step down next month. He is under investigation.