Iran is prepared to freeze its uranium enrichment for a short time, but this shouldn't be construed as a readiness to abandon enrichment, a top Iranian official said Monday. "Iran would not have a problem with a short-term suspension (of uranium enrichment). But the difficulty is that the West and the United States would use that as an excuse for extending" the suspension, Hasan Rowhani, a member of the Supreme National Security Council, said. But Rowhani's statement wasn't immediately endorsed by other officials and it was unclear if he spoke for the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who gave a news conference on Iran's nuclear issue a few hours later. The U.S. and France say Iran is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for producing weapons. Iran denies that, saying its program is designed only for power generation. The U.S. and the U.K. have said Iran must comply with the Security Council resolution or they will seek to take steps against it. "Their final aim is to prevent Iran from completing the enrichment technology," Rowhani said. "Our red line in Iran's nuclear case is that Iran's rights must be guaranteed and we must be able to enrich (uranium)," he said. Also Monday, Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, compared the U.S. opposition to Iran's nuclear program to the U.K.'s opposition to Iran nationalizing its oil industry in the early 1950s .