Updated on
Summary
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday more UN sanctions against his country over its nuclear program would not stop Iran but could permanently wreck its ties with the United States.Sanctions cannot stop the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation is able to withstand the pressure of the United States and its allies, Ahmadinejad told a news conference in New York, where he is attending a United Nations conference. While we do not welcome sanctions, we do not fear them either, he said, speaking through an interpreter. The United States and five other major powers are negotiating a fourth set of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. They expect the resolution to go through within the next few weeks. The West accuses Tehran of aiming to develop atomic weapons, but Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful power generation. The Iranian president voiced disappointment about the performance of US President Barack Obama, whom he said was locked in a political stalemate and has failed to keep a promise he made to the UN General Assembly in September to abandon the approach of the previous US administration. Ahmadinejad, the only head of state participating in the conference, complained that the US and its allies were pressuring Iran on the false pretext of probable diversions in their peaceful nuclear activities without providing even a single credible proof to substantiate their allegation.
