Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) Ahmadinejad and Bush engaged in a tit for tat today over Iran's nuclear programme. The Iranian president said his country "will not submit to bullying policies of some countries in the world". The US president called on Iranians to stand up saying that the "nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons".
Speaking in Blusher, the southern city where the nuclear plant involved in Iran's nuclear enrichment programme is located, Mahmud Ahmadinejad said that Iran's enemies opposed his country's scientific and technological development, insisting that the Iranian nation would continue on its path until all its rights were respected. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that for the president "any decision taken by the West against Iran's nuclear activities will not have any effect on the decision of Iranians."
The stress on "rights" is the key to understanding Iran's plan to build nuclear plants. The Russian-built Bushehr plant is scheduled to open by the end of this year and generate 1,000 megawatt. But the goal is to construct additional plants that will generate up to 20,000 megawatts.
Ahmadinejad's statement today is part of an all-out assault against the decision taken in London by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security CouncilUSA, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdomto ask the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report on Iran's nuclear programme before the Security Council at large.
Last night, Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, said his country would end snap inspections of its facilities by UN monitors as of Saturday if the country is reported to the Security Council.
"The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons," US President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union speech last night.
Bush called the Islamic republic "a nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people."
Addressing Iranians directly, he echoed a call he made a year ago and said: "And tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran."
Responding to "that man", i.e. Bush, Ahmadinejad said he hoped to see in the near future the trial of those who back the most corrupt and criminal regimes that provide help to those who destroy the homes of Palestinians and commit the most criminal and inhuman acts against the oppressed Palestinian people.