President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that world pressure on Iran, including talks of imposing new sanctions, makes the Islamic republic more determined than ever to pursue its nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad also reiterated his view that his US counterpart, Barack Obama, has been ineffective in ushering “real” change despite his promises.
“You (world powers) can cut your own throat, jump up or down, issue statements and declarations and pass resolutions… but don’t think you can stop the progress and building of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
“The more overt your animosity towards us, the more determined the Iranian nation will be to go forward.”
Ahmadinejad made his remarks in the southern city of Sirjan at a time when Obama has vowed to build world pressure on Tehran to stop its galloping nuclear drive which it has pursued aggressively under the hardliner’s presidency.
Ahmadinejad said Obama has failed to usher any “real” change on the ground despite his earlier slogans.
“In reality nothing has changed. They keep on saying we have extended our hand, but the Iranian nation and the government has brushed it off. What has changed? The pressures are still on. The sanctions are still on,” Ahmadinejad said.
Obama had initiated a series of diplomatic overtures soon after he took office in January 2009, but arch-foes Washington and Tehran have still failed to break their decades-old diplomatic deadlock.
{AFP/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
