Gholamreza Aghazadeh Quotes

When it comes to nuclear technology, the Iranian people are very sensitive. It is a part of our national pride, and nuclear technology has become indigenous.

Iran was nearing completion of a new reactor capable of producing plutonium for a bomb.

In 1947 I defended my thesis on nuclear physics, and in 1948 I was included in a group of research scientists whose task was to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has the technology to produce the highly enriched uranium, which is not automatically meaning nuclear weapon.

It is clear that the original idea of the Iranians [to produce nuclear weapons] has been stopped by this agreement.

You see what pressure the enemies of the world of Islam exert with regard to the issue of nuclear energy in Iran. They know we are not pursuing the atomic bomb. They are concerned because of the progress of science in this country, and because of the progress of technology in any Islamic country. This Islamic country has shown it does not surrender to America's policies. It has shown that it is not afraid of America. They believe that this Islamic country should not have the most important technology in the world today --- nuclear technology. That is why they exert such pressure.

Before the economic sanctions, we had 200 centrifuges. Today we have 20,000. Sanctions have failed.

I had no political background. That's why PM Bhutto gave me the responsibility of the nuclear programme, and we acquired nuclear capability in a span of mere six years, which was a great milestone.

For decades, Iran has covertly worked to develop a nuclear weapons program and has repeatedly violated its international obligations.

Our nuclear scientists and engineers have done a splendid job, and naturally, the entire nation has risen to salute their professional excellence, discipline, and patriotism. They have had the benefit of having been led in the past by great men like Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.

Iran doesn't need one centrifuge. Canada has nuclear energy. Spain has nuclear energy. Switzerland has nuclear energy, and they don't enrich uranium. You don't need to enrich uranium in order to use nuclear energy. You enrich uranium in order to produce a bomb.

We're [Iran] not dismantling anything. We are uninstalling some centrifuges and reconstructing the Arak reactor, modernizing it. . . . The remaining activities that we need undertake will not take more than several days, less than two weeks.

The fact is that one significant way the Iranians have a posture different from the North Koreans, the North Koreans basically are saying we have a nuclear program. We are seeking weapons. We have produced weapons. We're proud of the fact that we have weapons.

Iran is determined to use peaceful nuclear technology and no intimidation or threat can make us give it up.

Over more than a decade, Iran had moved ahead with its nuclear program. And before the deal, it had installed nearly 20,000 centrifuges that could enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb.

Satellite images suggest North Korea is building a light-water reactor and working on uranium enrichment. This is troubling.

Nuclear energy is the scientific achievement of the Iranian nation.

We are determined to provide for the nuclear fuel of such plants inside the country, at the hands of local Iranian scientists. We are going to follow on this path.

Iran's goal is not to become another North Korea - a nuclear weapons possessor but a pariah in the international community - but rather Brazil or Japan, a technological powerhouse with the capacity to develop nuclear weapons if the political winds were to shift, while remaining a nonnuclear weapons state.

I can tell you one thing, Iran is closer to developing nuclear weapons today than it was a week ago, or a month ago or a year ago. It's just moving on with its efforts.

The case of Iran, a nuclear program that the Iranians admit was 18 years on, that we underestimated. And, in fact, we didn't discover it. It was discovered by a group of Iranian dissidents outside the country who pointed the international community at the location.

As far as U.S. intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don't know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they're developing what's called 'nuclear capability,' which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That's not a crime.

I think we ultimately ought to look to put all uranium enrichment and fuel reprocessing, if any is done, under multinational control. Those are the two technologies by which nuclear energy can be translated into nuclear weapons programmes.

To be a major power, a country must have nuclear weapons.

There was a general consensus to go for the nuclear test. The whole nation wanted it, and it was done properly.