Iran is unfazed by the threat of war or sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme and mounting international pressure has only hardened its resolve, a senior official said Monday.
"They must understand that such an attitude will only persuade us more to have nuclear technology," said top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, responding to widespread condemnation of comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad.
Iran has been the focus of an international outcry after Ahmadinejad last week called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". The storm has also raised concerns over the country's bid to master sensitive nuclear fuel technology.
"There won't be a war. They do not have the means to go to war on two fronts," Larijani was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA in a reference to the continued hostilities faced by US-led forces in neighbouring Iraq.
"Iran is a hard target," insisted Larijani, who was addressing a seminar on nuclear energy.
"If they think they can limit us by oil sanctions or other sanctions, they are wrong. Oil sanctions will only increase the price of oil," he warned.
Iran says it only wants to develop nuclear power for electricity generation, but the United States and European Union fear Iran is using the fuel cycle as a means to acquire atomic weapons.
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found Iran to be in "non-compliance" with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - paving the way for a Security Council referral.
The IAEA also urged Iran to return to a full suspension of fuel cycle activities which it had agreed to in November 2004, but Iran has so far refused to do so and has rejected an EU offer of trade and other incentives in exchange for a cessation of fuel work.
The next IAEA meeting is on November 24.
"Iran has not concealed anything," Larijani insisted. "We agree that the agency can conduct any kind of inspection to make sure that Iran is not deviating from peaceful nuclear technology."
But he charged that diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis were being undermined by "a kind of American fascism", adding: "I do not consider negotiations the only way for the nuclear issue, although they are the first priority".
A team of IAEA inspectors is currently in Iran as part of the UN watchdog's two-and-a-half-year-old investigation of its nuclear programme, and another senior Iranian nuclear official said they had made "remarkable progress".
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