BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 11 (UPI) -- Any action by Western adversaries of Iran to block its nuclear progress is likely to come to a dead end, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon said.
Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Qazanfar Roknabadi announced that Beirut is hosting a one-week exhibition on Iranian technological and scientific advancements.
The event coincides with what Iran dubbed National Day of Nuclear Technology, announced early this week. Roknabadi said Iran's nuclear achievements were the cornerstone of its scientific progress. Any effort to undermine that progress is "doomed to failure," he said, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reports.
Iran announced this week it was moving to develop its domestic nuclear programs further by processing yellow cake uranium at a facility near the central Iranian city of Ardakan. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that Iran is a nuclear power.
Two days worth of negotiations in Kazakhstan concluded last weekend with few breakthroughs. Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, said both sides were "far apart" on the substance of the nuclear debate.
Iran is suspected of pursuing the technology needed to manufacture a nuclear weapon. The Iranian government denies the allegation, saying it has a right to a peaceful nuclear program as a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
