TEHRAN -- In an interview with the German daily Berliner Zeitung, the founder of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and the first AEOI director Akbar Etemad said that the West’s pretexts to oppose Iran’s nuclear activities are illegal, the Mehr News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Considering the massive oil consumption Iran’s oil reserves are depleting rapidly therefore this country is developing nuclear technology to gain an alternative energy to meet part of its domestic energy consumption, he told the paper.

Questioned why Iran did not declare its nuclear activities for a long time, he said that if Iran had declared its nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the West would have sought to prevent Iran from accessing to nuclear technology.

“I think Iran has made a correct decision,” he noted.

Iran has the right to use nuclear technology as a signatory to nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he asserted, adding that it is not acceptable for Iran to be deprived of this right.

“If the nuclear technology is good for you (the West), then we have the right to possess it too, and this is a wise view,” he stated.

Etemad called the NPT as a “bullying” contract, saying that NPT has turned into a nuclear apartheid.

Asked why Iran does not buy its needed nuclear material from the French uranium enrichment installations Eurodif, he said the former Iranian government bought 10 percent of the Eurodif shares, so Iran has the right to receive enriched uranium from Eurodif but France says that the Iran should buy enriched uranium from Russia which is disgraceful for a country that has 10 percent of Eurodif’s shares.