Ahmadinejad declares Wests defeat in nuclear tiff

Source: Compiled by Daily Star, 21-02-2008
Just days ahead of a new report by the UN nuclear watchdog, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran has brought world powers "to their knees" and successfully resisted US-led efforts to get Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment.
Ahmadinejad delivered a defiant speech to cheering supporters Wednesday in southern Iran, ahead of a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on the country's disputed nuclear program that Washington and some of its allies fear is aimed at building nuclear weapons.
"They [US and its allies] expected the Iranian nation ... to surrender after a resolution is issued or sanctions are imposed, but today ... it has brought all big powers to their knees," Ahmadinejad told supporters in Bandar Abbas, in comments broadcast live on state television.
The fiery leader said Iran would not stop enriching uranium - a process that yields material that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or weapons - under any conditions.
Tehran says its program is to generate fuel only.
"The Iranian nation considers nuclear energy its definite right and does not accept any additional and cruel rules," Ahmadinejad said, alluding to a possible new round of United Nations sanctions.
His speech drew chants of "Nuclear energy is our definite right!" from the crowd.
Iran has a right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium for peaceful means. But it has been hit with two rounds of UN sanctions over its refusal to stop enrichment.
The measures ordered all countries to ban the supply of specified materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs, and also imposed an asset freeze on key Iranian companies and individuals named by the United Nations. Iran condemned the resolutions as "invalid" and "illegal."
Addressing the US directly, Ahmadinejad warned Wednesday that America and its allies would face a determined nation "if you start a new game." He did not elaborate, but was likely referring to Washington's efforts to push for a new round of UN sanctions.
In November, an IAEA report said Iran had been truthful about its past uranium enrichment activities, and the IAEA had no comment over Ahmadinejad's Wednesday speech.
The Iranian president also called "Israel" a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal," stepping up his rhetoric against the Jewish (Zionist) state after the murder of a top Hizbullah commander.
"World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region," Ahmadinejad said.
The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, on Monday had predicted that Hizbullah would destroy "Israel" in the near future.
Ahmadinenjad's latest tirade came a week after the murder in a car bombing in Damascus of Imad Moghnieh, a top Hizbullah commander hailed by Iran as a great martyr who was killed by "Israel".
"Israel" has denied any involvement in his murder although it welcomed the death of Moghnieh, who was on America's most wanted list for a string of anti-"Israeli" and anti-Western attacks.
"They [the 'Israelis'] assassinate pure and pious people and then they celebrate it, like what happened to the son of Lebanon who had stood against the savage onslaught of the Zionists and broke the Zionists' horns," said Ahmadinejad.
He also accused world powers of establishing "Israel" to create a "scarecrow" to frighten and dominate nations in the region.