AHMADINEJAD OF IRAN

Iran threatens United States with "harm and pain"

By Israel Insider staff and partners March 9, 2006

Iran said Thursday it won't be bullied into abandoning its nuclear program, rejecting its referral to the U.N. Security Council as "unjust." Both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ali Khamenei were defiant in the face of the mounting international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

"The people of Iran will not accept coercion and unjust decisions by international organizations," Ahmadinejad said during a visit to Iran's western province of Lorestan, according to Iran's state television. "Enemies cannot force the Iranian people to relinquish their rights." "The era of bullying and brutality is over," he added. The television said Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, told a group of clerics that Iran would not drop its nuclear program.

"Authorities are obliged to continue toward achieving advanced technology, including nuclear energy. The people and the government will resist any force or conspiracy." He charged that Washington was looking for an excuse to continue what he called a psychological war against his country.

"This time they have used nuclear energy as an excuse. If Iran quits now, the case will not be over. The Americans will find another excuse," he said. "Our enemies will never succeed in forcing the Iranian nation to step back on its rights over peaceful nuclear technology because it never accepts humiliation," State television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Thursday.

"This nation ... Will not allow others to treat it with a bullying attitude, even if those who treat it with a bullying attitude are international bullies," he added. The statements came a day after Iran threatened the United States with the ability to inflict "harm and pain", as the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency ended a three-day meeting in Vienna, Austria, over Iran's nuclear program, formally opening the path to Security Council action.

"They (Western countries) know that they are not capable of inflicting the slightest blow on the Iranian nation because they need the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a speech in western Iran. "They will suffer more and they are vulnerable," he said, without elaborating. The Security Council, whose action could range from a mild statement urging compliance to sanctions or even military measures, was expected to debate the issue next week.

The IAEA had put the council on alert over the issue last month but delayed any action to give more time for diplomacy under an agreement by the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - the five permanent Security Council members that wield veto power. The five countries met in New York on Wednesday to discuss a first response to the crisis.

Washington is seeking harsh measures against Iran, but economic and political sanctions are unlikely because of opposition from Russia and China, which have strategic and commercial ties with Tehran. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns suggested Wednesday that America would push for sanctions if appeals and demands failed.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Moscow would not support sanctions and he ruled out military action. Wednesday's IAEA meeting featured an intense debate over a critical report on Iran's nuclear program. Soon after the meeting ended, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he would send the report to the Security Council within 24 hours. ElBaradei, however, cast Security Council involvement as a continuation of diplomacy with Iran.

He suggested Washington might need to talk to Iran directly if negotiations reach the stage of focusing on security guarantees to Tehran in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program. ElBaradei's report accused Iran of withholding information, possessing plans linked to nuclear weapons and refusing to freeze uranium enrichment - a possible pathway to nuclear arms.

Tehran's newspapers published news of the decision on their front pages Thursday. The official Persian-language daily Iran called the move "a message of weakness and failure" by the nuclear agency. A total of 195 Iranian lawmakers, meanwhile, issued a statement Thursday urging authorities to implement a law passed last year requiring the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities if the country is referred to the Security Council.

They also asked the government to resume suspended nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment. Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful and only aimed at generating electricity, but an increasing number of countries have come to share the U.S. view that Tehran is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

The U.S. and its European allies want Iran to give up uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or materials for a nuclear bomb. Iran has rejected the demand, saying it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.