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Asefi: US ballyhoo over Iran not new or unexpected

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Dec 5, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi 
said here Sunday that the fuss made by Bush administration officials 
and the US media regarding developments in Iran was not "new or 
unexpected." 
Speaking to domestic and foreign reporters at his weekly press 
briefing, the speaker said that the US has finally accepted that it 
failed on Iran`s nuclear case. 
"They wanted to create another crisis but were thwarted by the 
wise policies of the Islamic system," Asefi said, adding that they 
(the US) failed to get international support to have the nuclear case 
of Iran referred to the UN Security Council and so, in their 
disappointment, are trying to create new pressures and antagonism 
against Iran. 
Asked to comment on a report regarding the arrest of two Iranians 
in Austria suspected of trying to buy night vision goggles for Tehran,
Asefi said that Tehran has asked the Austrian embassy here and the 
Foreign Ministry of Austria to provide Iran with further detailed 
information on the report. 
"We have not been informed of the case through an official 
channel," said the spokesman, adding that Tehran would try to find 
the identities of those people if it turns out that they were 
Iranians. 
Referring to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder`s comments that a
demand on Iran to abandon its nuclear programs would be "unrealistic,"
Asefi said that even President Jacques Chirac of France supported the 
German chancellor`s view that Iran has every right to obtain nuclear 
technology for peaceful ends. 
"It is clearly an obvious and undeniable right" of all countries, 
including the Islamic Republic, to develop and exploit nuclear 
technology, noted the spokesman. 
He added that the IAEA Board of Governor`s latest resolution 
explicitly mentions the right of all NPT members to have access to 
nuclear technology. 
Iran entered into a dialogue with Europeans based on "mutual 
trust and for confidence-building," Asefi said, adding that if each 
side acted with honesty and transparency, confidence building will 
be consummated. 
Asked how the deal with Europe would affect Iran`s bid for 
membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), Asefi said that the 
Europeans have become more supportive of Iran`s bid since after the 
Paris accord, but clarified that Iran`s entry into the WTO was 
dependent on many factors and not exclusively decided by the 
Europeans. 
1394/2321/1432