Daily Mail: The Iranian president today attempted to humiliate Britain by parading a captured naval boat in a huge rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Daily Mail
The Iranian president today attempted to humiliate Britain by parading a captured naval boat in a huge rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also used the occasion to tell huge crowds in Tehran that Iran will not back down “one iota” in its nuclear dispute with Western powers.
The boat paraded was seized by the increasingly aggressive state in June 2004 inside the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
The embarrassing incident was followed by Iran broadcasting footage of eight blind-folded British sailors being frogmarched into jail.
And, in a copycat episode in March last year, 15 naval personnel were captured after allegedly entering Iranian water.
On each occasion the servicemen and women were returned to Britain soon afterwards.
Mr Ahmadinejad is said to use the tactic of shaming British forces to punish the UK for supporting the UN’s outlawing of its nuclear programme.
The West fears Iran is covertly trying to obtain nuclear bombs.
But the Islamic Republic’s firebrand leader says the country needs nuclear technology to meet its booming electricity demand.
“They should know that the Iranian nation will not retreat one iota from its nuclear rights,” Mr Ahmadinejad told the crowd which had gathered in the capital Tehran for the 29th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.
“They cannot do anything except to play with papers and make propaganda,” Ahmadinejad said, referring to world powers discussing a third UN sanctions resolution against Tehran over work the West fears has military aims.
Iranian officials had called on people to turn out in large numbers to show their unity in the face of Western pressure.
State television broadcast live footage of major rallies held in Tehran and other cities.
At Tehran’s Azadi square, Ahmadinejad asked the crowd: “Were you ready to retreat from your nuclear rights one step or one iota?”
The demonstrators chanted: “No, nuclear energy is our obvious right.”
