Nobel Laureate Says Iran Would Defend Self [View All]

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The Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian activist who won the peace prize for her struggle for women's rights, warned Friday that the Iranian people would defend their country against any American attack. ``We will not allow an American soldier to set foot'' in Iran, said Ebadi, who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. ``We will defend our country till the last drop of blood.''

President Bush has not ruled out the use of force against Iran but has said force is not necessarily required to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Bush has dismissed recent reports of plans for a military attack against Tehran as ``wild speculation.''

The Iranian government has said the nuclear program is intended only for peaceful purposes, while the United States and others say the country is seeking nuclear weapons. Ebadi said Friday the program does not pose a threat, but repeated her calls for Tehran to open up its program, to persuade the international community that it is not building a bomb.

``The Iranian government intends to use the nuclear program for peaceful purposes, but must convince international public opinion of that,'' Ebadi told reporters in Paris. She called for democratic reforms in Iran, but said change can only come from within the country. ``The intervention of the American army will not improve the situation - the experience of Iraq has demonstrated that,'' Ebadi said, adding that Iranians would ``not allow another Iraq to happen.'' Ebadi, 58, a veteran human rights and democracy activist, was the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5771608,00.html