Region | Iran
Sanctions 'will not stop Iran'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday dismissed any new UN sanctions resolution as "a torn piece of paper" that would not stop Tehran's nuclear work, the official Irna news agency reported.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 March 16, 2007
- Moderate Iranian politicians have blamed Ahmadinejad's defiant rhetoric for pushing Iran toward international isolation.
- Image Credit: AP
Tehran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday dismissed any new UN sanctions resolution as "a torn piece of paper" that would not stop Tehran's nuclear work, the official Irna news agency reported.
The US, British, French, German, Russian and Chinese diplomats at the United Nations have reached a tentative deal on imposing fresh sanctions on Iran and hope to introduce the measure at the Security Council, providing their governments agree.
"Issuing such torn pieces of paper ... will not have an impact on Iranian nation's will," Irna quoted Ahmadinejad as telling a rally in central Iran.
An earlier sanctions resolution passed by the Security Council in December was derided by Ahmadinejad in similar terms.
Isolation
Senior Iranian leaders, including the country's most powerful figure Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have all ruled out halting uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for use either in nuclear bombs or civilian power stations.
But moderate Iranian politicians have blamed Ahmadinejad's defiant rhetoric for pushing Iran toward international isolation and want a less confrontational approach.
Two prominent Iranian reform parties have urged the government to suspend enrichment to preserve what they call the national interest, a reference to avoiding isolation that could hurt the economy.
But officials brush off economic worries.
The new UN resolution, which may be adopted next week, could include a ban on Iranian arms exports, an assets freeze on individuals and firms involved in Tehran's nuclear and missile programmes and a call for a bar on new grants or loans, according to a proposed text obtained by Reuters.
'No retreat'
"What is the aim of issuing such resolutions? Today we are mastering the nuclear fuel cycle completely," Ahmadinejad said.
"If all of you [Westerners] get together and call your ancestors from hell as well, you will not be able to stop the Iranian nation."
The West fears Iran's atomic work is aimed at atomic weapons. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, denies it.
Ahmadinejad said imposing sanctions on Iran would be counter-productive. "You sanctioned us in the past but we obtained nuclear technology.
"Impose economic sanctions on us today and see what would be our next step," Ahmadinejad said.
He said Western powers were wrong to suppose Iran would give up its nuclear programme under political pressure, adding that the Security Council had "no legitimacy".
"All the Iranian nation insists on this right and will not retreat one iota," Ahmadinejad said.
Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said yesterday that tougher United Nations sanctions would not harm development of the country's oil and gas industry. Iran has the world's second biggest gas reserves.
"For the past 25 years we have witnessed unilateral sanctions by the US but have developed our oil industry with the help of internal resources and the help of other countries," Hamaneh said in Vienna.
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