Erdogan: US, Europe unfair on Iran rights

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan speaks up for Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, saying Western fears in this regard are utterly senseless.

Erdogan told The Guardian on Monday that Europe and the US have been treating Tehran unfairly over its enrichment program because "although Iran doesn't have a weapon, those who say Iran shouldn't have them are those countries which do [have nuclear weapons],"

"Iran does not accept it is building a weapon. They are working on nuclear power for the purposes of energy only," said Erdogan, who is due to visit Tehran for talks with Iranian government officials

His remarks come only a day after a four-member team from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran to inspect the nascent Fordo enrichment facility near the city of Qom.

In recent weeks, the Fordo site has received a lot of media attention in the West, where it has been become known as "the controversial nuclear plant kept secret by the Tehran government".

This is while, in actual fact, Iranian officials had announced the construction of a second enrichment plant, which will enrich uranium to the 5 percent, in a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog on September 21.

The letter was sent 12 months before the agency's regulations oblige its members states to inform of new developments.

According to the agency's document 153, member states are obliged to inform the body of the existence of enrichment plants 6 months before the introduction of nuclear materials into the facility.

In light of the ongoing media hype against Iran's enrichment program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that the mainstream media in the West has grown to become more dangerous and more threatening than any chemical or nuclear weapons.

“Our activities are entirely based on honesty and transparency. We did not have any secrets as we informed the agency well in-advance,” he said earlier this month.