Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran wanted to resolve decades of differences with the United States and also warned that a U.S. military strike would not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. "We are not seeking tension with the United States," Hasan Rowhani told state-run Iranian television. "We are seeking to resolve our problems with America but it's the Americans who don't want problems to be resolved." "There is no problem in today's world that can't be resolved," Rowhani insisted. Rowhani, who is the secretary of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, said a U.S. military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would fail. "Iran's nuclear technology is in the hands of its scientists and workshops throughout the country. All of them have the ability to produce centrifuges. Therefore, America will not be able to destroy our nuclear facilities and mines through a military strike," he warned in the television interview. The broadcast reported that Iran was to begin a new round of nuclear talks with the Europeans in Geneva on Tuesday, which some Iranian diplomats called "perhaps the last round of talks." Rowhani said Iran will never scrap its nuclear program and won't give up its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows Iran access to peaceful nuclear technology. "Talks can't continue for a long time. The Europeans have been told that the period of negotiations has to be within months and not years," he said in the television interview. "And the condition to continue the talks is progress. Therefore, if by the end of the (Iranian calendar) year (March 20), there is no progress in the talks, we will not be obliged to continue the talks," Rowhani said. He also insisted that Iran now possesses the technology to control the whole nuclear fuel cycle _ from extracting uranium ore to enriching it. "We have the ability to extract uranium, process it into yellowcake and enrich it and produce fuel. We can claim that we control the nuclear fuel cycle," he said.
