Bloomberg: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said European nations risk damaging their ties with Iran by supporting the U.S. in the dispute over his country’s nuclear program. By Ladane Nasseri
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said European nations risk damaging their ties with Iran by supporting the U.S. in the dispute over his country’s nuclear program.
“If you want to cooperate with our enemy, we won’t be able to react in a friendly manner any more,” Ahmadinejad said today. “Until when do you want to play the card for the selfishness of an aggressive government?” He didn’t name any countries.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has clearly stated that there is no proof Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, the president said while visiting a petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh, southern Iran.
Iran is under United Nations sanctions for refusing to suspend the production of enriched uranium, a nuclear fuel. The Islamic Republic, which has the world’s second-largest oil and natural gas reserves, denies U.S. allegations it is building an atomic bomb and says it wants the technology to generate electricity.
Iran is still “at least a few years away” from being able to build a nuclear bomb and there is time for diplomacy to head off any military confrontation, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said on CNN’s “Late Edition” program Oct. 28. He said he hadn’t seen “any concrete evidence” of a secret Iranian weapons program.
“You know that we are able to react,” Ahmadinejad said in his remarks directed at European nations. “In the economy, you need us more than we do you.”
