The head of Iran’s parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy said Sunday that Tehran will never halt its atomic program but suggested that talks between his country and the international community continue anyway:

Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the talks were “considered effective and a step forward,” but he added, “the Islamic Republic of Iran will never stop uranium enrichment activities.”… “If one day the (Iranian) administration decides to close down Fordo, the parliament will oppose the decision, definitely,” Boroujerdi was quoted as saying. He said Iran will continue reinforcing the plant because of foreign threats.

Boroujerdi’s position will not do much to assuage concerns — expressed by U.S., E.U, and U.N. diplomats, Israeli officials, the head of the IAEA, top U.S. military officials, and most recently Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal — to the effect that Iran is using open-ended negotiations to stall for time as it develops a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s nuclear activities, coupled with Tehran’s commitment to the eradication of Israel, were emphasized last night by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of his Holocaust Remembrance Day address at the Yad Vashem Museum:

Today, the regime in Iran openly calls and determinedly works for our destruction. And it is feverishly working to develop atomic weapons to achieve that goal. I know that there are those who do not like when I speak such uncomfortable truths. They prefer that we not speak of a nuclear Iran as an existential threat. They say that such language, even if true, only sows fear and panic.

I ask, have these people lost all faith in the people of Israel? Do they think that this nation, which has overcome every danger, lacks the strength to confront this new threat?…

Those who dismiss Iran’s threats as exaggerated or as mere idle posturing have learned nothing from the Holocaust… The truth is that a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat of the State of Israel. The truth is that a nuclear-armed Iran is an political threat to other countries throughout the region and a grave threat to the world peace. The truth is that Iran must be stopped from obtaining nuclear weapons. It is the duty of the whole world, but above and beyond, it is OUR duty.

The prime minister’s speech was echoed by Israeli President Shimon Peres:

The civilized world must ask itself how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, it is still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust. Whoever ignores the threat against one nation, must know that the threat of a Holocaust against one nation is a threat of a Holocaust against all nations. The Jewish people are a small nation in number but large in spirit. That spirit cannot be burned in the ovens.

In 2012 Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared that Israel “is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut, God Willing.”  A few months later, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Hassan Firouzabadi emphasized that “the Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel.”

Iran is scheduled to celebrate Nuclear Technology Day tomorrow. Iranian press outlets report that the country will unveil its latest nuclear achievements, and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak.

[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube]