DAMASCUS, Syria, March 10 (UPI) -- Iranian officials said they want compensation for the suspension of their nuclear work while stressing Islam forbids nuclear weapons.
Speaking in Syria, Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili said at the International Conference on Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Program that "those who made us stop uranium enrichment based on false accusations will have to pay compensation as a result," the Kuwaiti news agency reported Monday.
An intelligence compendium produced by the United States in November suggested Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Jalili hinted that Tehran wanted to return to the negotiating table with Western powers but noted those talks "must come with conditions."
Meanwhile, Ayatollah Mojtaba Hosseini, a spokesman for the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised his country's "indigenous manpower" in developing its nuclear technology, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.
He referred to the civilian nature of Iran's nuclear activities saying, "Iran is not to produce atomic bomb as production of weapons of mass destruction is forbidden in Islam."
