"Israel … has been announced as having hundreds of nuclear warheads and is a serious threat to international peace and security," says Khatami

ISLAMABAD, December 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Atomic or nuclear weapons are not going to bring security for any nation in the world, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Tuesday, December 24, adding that "some countries who may have exerted pressure on Pakistan to abandon the nuclear program" should press Israel as well.

"We believe that atomic or nuclear weapons are not going to bring security for any nation in the world. And some countries may have exerted pressure, for example, on Pakistan to abandon the nuclear program inside their country," Khatami said, quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"But we believe that these countries should press the Zionist regime of Israel that has been announced as having hundreds of nuclear warheads and is a serious threat to international peace and security."

He added that Iran is determined to complete the Bushehr plant to be used to produce energy and for peaceful purposes.

"We are determined to develop it [the plant] for energy and peaceful purposes in the country. I repeat, peaceful purpose," he said.

Concerning the nuclear waste Russia demanded to be returned, Khtami said that Iran would return to Russia nuclear waste.

"We have no problem to send back the nuclear waste or the uranium waste back to the other countries...," Khatami told reporters in translated remarks on the second day of his first official visit to Pakistan. "We are not insisting to treat them inside Iran because they would also have environmental problems," the president said.

The first reactor at the plant in Bushehr, in southern Iran, is scheduled to be loaded with fuel by the end of 2003 and come on stream by mid-2004.

Meanwhile, Khatami urged further cooperation between the Muslim neighbors to quash years of strain and suspicion over Afghanistan.

Khatami, the first Iranian president to visit Islamabad in 10 years, was to meet Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali in the morning to address a full slate of bilateral and regional issues including common neighbor Afghanistan, over which they have had major differences.

"In our neighborhood, nevertheless, there have existed various issues and problems that have left harmful impacts on both of us," Khatami said late Monday, December 23, at a state banquet hosted by his counterpart Pervez Musharraf, with whom he met earlier.

The two sides were "resolved to solve all issues and difficulties that linger in our mutual relations," he added.

"To solve these problems, we are in need of further cooperation."

Tehran and Islamabad hope to kick off a new era in ties between the Islamic states following the collapse of Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

"Security and stability for Afghanistan is very important for Iran and Pakistan and we are going to help the country move in that direction," Khatami said late Monday.

Tehran-Islamabad ties reached an all-time low during Taliban's rule, with Iran and Pakistan fighting a proxy war on Afghan soil as Islamabad backed Taliban and Tehran supported its opponents in the Northern Alliance.

The two countries are now technically on the same side in Afghanistan, officially supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai.

They are also keenly aware of the importance of stability in the war-ravaged central Asian nation, Iran's envoy to Pakistan Seyed Serajeddin Mousavi added.

"If there are problems there, both Iran and Pakistan will have to face the onslaught of refugees," he said.

Khatami was to focus on bilateral economic concerns in his talks with Jamali, Pakistan's first civilian premier since Musharraf's 1999 bloodless coup.

They were to sign agreements on trade, agriculture, and science and technology.