Tehran, August 20: Iran was no longer afraid of any financial sanctions being imposed in its row with the West over Iran’s nuclear programmes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday.
The president was referring to reports that Iran could face renewed sanctions if the country failed to meet a September deadline set by US President Barack Obama and approved by the European Union for resuming talks over the country’snuclear programmes.
“No country would dare even point at Iran [regarding renewed sanctions],” Ahmadinejad was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying in the southern Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas.
Ahmadinejad said before and after his disputed re-election in June that Iran would no longer talk to the world powers – namely the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – over the nuclear dispute but only to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Even remarks by Iran’s IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, that Iran was ready to hold negotiations with the world powers over the nuclear dispute “without preconditions” were hastily denied althoughstate television had quoted the envoy as saying so.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran would not cave in to the September deadline, adding that after Ahmadinejad’s re-election, “the West should adopt itself to the new era in Iran.”
The EU has not yet congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election because of allegations of widespread fraud by the Iranian opposition in the June 12 election.
Ahmadinejad said he did not care about the EU move not to congratulate him but accused the Europeans of blatant interference in Iran’s internal affairs and warned that they faced consequences.
The world powers fear that Iran was conducting a secret nuclear weapons programme that could eventually be used against Tehran’s archfoe Israel.
Iran has categorically denied the charges and said its nuclear projects were for civilian and peaceful purposes.
–Agencies