Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 24 Irans hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charted an intransigent course for his countrys controversial nuclear program and mocked the Wests response to the recent resumption of nuclear activities by Iran, which was sharply condemned in a European-sponsored
resolution by the board of governors of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Oct. 24 Irans hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charted an intransigent course for his countrys controversial nuclear program and mocked the Wests response to the recent resumption of nuclear activities by Iran, which was sharply condemned in a European-sponsored resolution by the board of governors of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Speaking at a gathering of university students in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said of the Wests response, At first, they made a lot of noise about it, but gradually they were made to sit down quietly.
The text of his speech was published in Mondays issue of the semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami.
Ahmadinejad said his government will resume work on the full nuclear fuel cycle, which includes uranium enrichment, adding that his government seriously supported the resumption of nuclear activities at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan and will stand by this decision.
The Islamic Republic reached the conclusion that continuing the status quo was harmful to our national security, he said.
The more we retreated, the more they stepped forward, to the extent that Mohammad ElBaradei, the secretary general of the [International Atomic Energy”> Agency [IAEA”> recently told us, They dont want you to have nuclear technology., Ahmadinejad said, referring to the now suspended negotiations between Iran and the European trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Why should we give in? the ultra-Islamist president asked. Where does it say in our laws that we have to beg the Europeans for our rights?
Ahmadinejad expressed confidence that the West will be forced to retreat in the face of the Iranian regimes uncompromising stance, and he indicated that his government was emboldened by what it perceived as the Wests feeble reaction.
God willing, the West will accept our position since Irans political power in the world is very great and in certain regions unrivalled. We need the world but we have shown that we can achieve development without them.
The British asked us in New York not to bring up this matter. This shows the West is very susceptible to blows and more feeble than it pretends, the hard-line President said, referring to meetings he had with British officials at the United Nations in September.
Ahmadinejad said that contrary to what was being said, his government does not see the nuclear issue as a crisis.
Some people want to make us believe that hell has broken loose. Our enemies are booing us from abroad and they want us to think that something big has happened.
The hard-line president dismissed speculations of a military strike on Iran.
If the West was capable of striking a blow at us, it would not inform us in advance. If you see that they are not hitting us, be sure that they are not capable of doing it, and will never be capable of doing it.
The Islamic Republic understands why the West is fearful of Irans nuclear technology, because if the West conceded that Iran has achieved this level of technology, their 27-year-old propaganda about our religious state being incompetent would be utterly undone, the Revolutionary Guards commander-turned-President said.
The other fear the West has is that the Iranian nation obtained this technology on its own, and whatever they do, we will rebuild it. This science will not be destroyed in Iran. At any instance that we decide, it will be renewable.
The West is also worried, because if Iran joins the club of countries that have mastered full nuclear fuel cycle, the West wont be able to stop other countries, he said.
The hard-line president added that the West was very angry at Iran, but that doesnt bother us. We say that they can take this anger with them to their graves.
Ahmadinejad said the West was opposed to the very existence of the Islamic Republic. If this [nuclear”> problem is resolved, then they will bring up the issue of human rights. If the human rights issue is resolved, then they will probably bring up the issue of animal rights.
We told them that everything has now changed, he said.
As time goes by, we will continue to move up step by step and we will not back down. When we start the fuel cycle, no doubt, everything will become different.
