Iran insists satellite launch has no military aim

IRAN: Iran insisted on Wednesday that the launch of its first home-built satellite has no military aims, despite deep concerns in the West about the development.

"This is a scientific and technical achievement and has no military aims," foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters.

Iran's launch of the Omid (Hope) satellite carried by the home-built Safir-2 rocket on Monday has set alarm bells ringing among Western powers already at loggerheads with Tehran over its nuclear programme.

But hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the move signalled Tehran's technological achievement and was an attempt to break the Western world's monopoly on science.

"We should try to break this scientific monopoly," he said at a seminar on science in Tehran.

"Today science and other technologies are monopolised. We should try to get science out of the control of the arrogant and the selfish," he said, adding the satellite launch had raised Iran's global status a "hundred steps".

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes and that it has the right to technology already in the hands of many other nations, including archfoe the United States.

But Ghashghavi brushed off the concerns, saying Tehran believed in "respecting international rules about non-militarised space."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed dismay with Iran following overtures by US President Barack Obama, who said last month he was willing to extend the hand of diplomacy to Tehran after 30 years of severed ties.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also warned Iran it faced consequences if it failed to respect demands that it halt its uranium enrichment, the process that makes fuel for nuclear plants but can be diverted to make the core of an atomic bomb.

"President Obama has signalled his intention to support tough and direct diplomacy with Iran, but if Iran does not comply with the UNSC and the IAEA mandate, there must be consequences," Clinton said.

In London, British Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell voiced "serious concerns" over the launch.

The technology for launching satellites "is very similar to ballistic (missile) capabilities," said French foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.

"We can't but link this to the very serious concerns about the development of military nuclear capability."

Tehran, Wednesday, AFP