Tehran, July 17: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Thursday that the Islamic Republic will “slap” any aggressors so hard they will lose their way home, according to a television news report.
State-controlled PressTV quoted Ahmadinejad as renewing his allegations against Western countries of having sought to influence the June 12 election in which he was re-elected.
The English-language channel said he told a “huge” crowd in the city of Mashad that some countries had even set up satellite television channels in their efforts to spoil the election, which the opposition insists was rigged.
Ahmadinejad pledged that the new government he will form in coming weeks will have “10 times” the power of the outgoing team.
If any other country tries to interfere in Iran it will “slap the aggressor so hard they will lose their way back home,” PressTV reported the President as saying.
According to a longer report on the channel’s website, Ahmadinejad also said the high voter turnout in the election caught Westerners off guard and “foiled all their evil plans”.
On the question of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, he said his government will remain open to “logic and dialogue” to end the international deadlock.
He warned, however, “If each and every one of the Western countries that oppose Iran’s nuclear programme joins forces, they would still fail to deprive the Iranian nation of its inalienable nuclear rights,” PressTV said.
Two of Ahmadinejad’s rival candidates, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and reformist Mehdi Karroubi, still reject the election results as fraudulent.
The new government is scheduled to be unveiled next month, with the hardline President having pledged to change the structure of the cabinet by making “considerable changes” to his team.
–Agencies