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Vahid Salemi / AP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, waves to well wishers from his car during an annual rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution on Sunday.
DUBAI - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Tehran would not negotiate about its disputed nuclear program under pressure, but would talk to its adversaries if they stopped "pointing the gun.'
In a speech to mark the 34th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad struck a more conciliatory tone than Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who on February 7 rebuffed a U.S. call for direct negotiations on disputes between the two countries.
Ahmadinejad does not have the authority to authorize negotiations over the nuclear program, which lies with Khamenei.
"You cannot point a gun at the Iranian nation and then expect them to have negotiations with you," Ahmadinejad said, speaking to a crowd gathered in Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square.
His speech, which partly dealt with Iran's policy towards its 'enemies', was carried live on Iranian state television.
"Talks should not be used as a lever to impose one's opinions.... If you stop pointing the gun at the Iranian nation, I will negotiate (with you) myself," he added.
The U.S. and some of its allies suspect Iran may be trying to develop atomic weapons capability under the cover of a civilian nuclear energy program, a charge Iran has denied.
Many believe no nuclear deal is possible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw, requiring direct talks addressing myriad sources of mutual mistrust and hostility lingering since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
On the nuclear dispute, Iran has agreed to a new round of talks with world powers in Kazakhstan on February 26.
Related: Iran's supreme leader rejects Joe Biden's offer of direct talks
Tehran is seeking the lifting of sanctions that have slashed oil exports and helped reduce the value of the Iranian rial by about half in the last year, contributing to higher inflation and weakened purchasing power for ordinary Iranians.
At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.
Iranians bearing banners saying "Down With U.S.A." and "We are standing until the end" gathered at state-organized mass demonstrations in the capital Tehran and other major cities to mark the anniversary of the ousting of a Western-friendly monarchy in favor of clerical leadership.
Ahmadinejad did not address the specifics of Iran's nuclear program, or of the planned talks, in his speech on Sunday. He said that Iran would counter the sanctions by increasing its non-oil exports and weaning itself off crude revenues.
"Today the enemies are trying their utmost to put pressure on the Iranian nation to stop its progress but they will not succeed," he said.
Last week, the U.S. implemented a measure meant to "lock up" Iranian oil revenues by requiring them to be credited to accounts in countries that buy Iranian crude.
Supreme leader Khamenei on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct negotiations with the United States, saying negotiations and pressure were incompatible.
Khamenei was believed to have been replying to remarks by Vice President Joe Biden, who said in a speech in Germany on February 2 that the United States was ready to hold direct talks with Iran if it was serious about negotiations.
Related:
Iran accused of sending missiles, explosives to insurgents in Yemen
Iran releases video allegedly captured by crashed US spy drone
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Iran getting a nuke might be the break we have all been waiting for. The first well placed nuke on Washington DC would let us start all over again. Maybe then we can get some sensible people in there that haven't been bought off by the lobbyists and a president and vice president that really care about our country.
The Iranians might suddenly need to negotiate....for more time.....if the following is true:
It was reported the Jan. 21 explosions at Fordow trapped 219 workers, including 16 North Koreans: 14 technicians and two military attaches. A Fordow security source said that as of three days ago, at least 40 people have been killed, including two North Koreans, and more than 60 injured, some in critical condition.
The foreign services division of a European intelligence agency, in confirming the explosions, said its information was verified by assets in Iran’s government. The Islamic regime is now cleaning up the site and assessing the damage. The agency above cannot be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, which could derail talks scheduled in February in Kazakhstan between Iran and the 5-plus-1 countries: the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.
A high-ranking Iranian diplomat serving in an Iranian consulate in Asia, whose name cannot be revealed due to security, said that an order from Iran’s Foreign Ministry was issued days after the explosion to all of its embassies, ambassadors, deputy chiefs and spokesmen that no interviews on Fordow can be given to news agencies and that any response to queries by reporters should refer only to a statement by the White House and a report by news agencies on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters last week, “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible.” Then in an unusual move, IAEA spokeswoman Gil Tudor emailed reporters a brief statement: “We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at Fordow. This is consistent with our observations.” However, Tudor could neither confirm nor deny the incident had taken place and would not say whether IAEA inspectors had visited the site after the explosions, despite some media reports that they had. In fact, the IAEA has not visited the site since the explosions despite media rumors it has, said the security source at Fordow who originally provided the information on the explosions.
Fordow is probably the foremost Iranian enrichment facility amongst about 10 nuclear facilities.
If the report is true, whatever agency pulled this off was quite masterful.
Make no mistake! The point of no return will be when the chit hits the fan and Israel feels they have been left no choice. When this point of a new day takes place, again, make no mistake American military assets will be at risk, the world economy will be at risk, and the dismantling of the Iranian regime will be underway. One acre at a time Israeli led forces, backed up by tons of air support and a hardened backdoor line of supplies and relief personnel the push to invade Iran and capture all of their nuclear making capabilities will be the responsibility of the Israeli Nation. They are the leaders in this fight to deter and insure Iran keeps from nuclear enrichment of weapons grade and many indicators that show currently, Iran is hiding something.
If Iran agrees to new talks and inspections, if Iran lays out their nuclear intentions by proof of their nuclear reactors and programs step by step to show the world they are only in it for new sources of energy, then and only then, will the extreme pressure be relieved for the innocent citizens of Iran. The people of Iran are letting their current regime play Russian roulette with their lively hoods and their lives. Tic-Toc..Tic-Toc.. What is it going to be? Tic-Toc!
Sounds like Iraq WMDs all over again. It is all bull chit, this most likely an Israeli contrived situation. This should not be our problem.
I agree somewhat Oh no,
Our current military readiness to back up Israel isn't as top notch as it once was. The wars against terrorism has our military a tad bit tired, thinned out and the current economy back on our home turf is still lacking the pro-growth policies our elected officials refuse to acknowledge and put forth. No one else but the U.S. is as strong of an ally to the Israeli's and without our support the Iranian elite fighting force on their own ground would stand firm and create great losses to the ground pounders of the invading Israeli's. I just wish it would all go away but, reality is cold, hard and in your face.
Ummm what makes you all think Israel will launch a ground invasion? For a start they couldn’t afford it. If they called up their reservists in order to have the manpower to both fight Iran and guard all their borders their economy would collapse in a number of weeks (some say about 2 months max) as all those jobs would be vacant. Likewise if they launched a ground invasion of Iran and got bogged down they would no doubt see more activity on their borders from Hamas and Hezbollah as they would take advantage too. In all a ground invasion is really out of the question for Israel unless it’s to support the US which the US would only do as a last resort as they wouldn’t want to alienate the rest of the Arab world (remember Saudi is the US’s biggest supplier of oil) so the main result likely is an Israeli airstrike which would most likely include conventional aircraft, drones and conventional missiles to try to destroy the Iranian facilities. The end result of which would be to delay an Iranian missile program by a few years, maybe a decade at the most.
One day he brags about having missiles that can take out Israel, the next day he denies having nuclear ambitions.
His bragging is not much different from Netti's whining about how much they [Israel] feel threatened and abused.
Israel's not going to hit Iran until Assad is taken down (and then Israeli warplanes can travel across north Syria unhindered and then across friendly Kurdish north Iraq). Better logistics.
I can practically guarantee once that happens (regardless of whether the US joins in on the strike), our bases and military assets in the region will be hit (possibly by Iran directly, and at least indirectly via proxies) And then we WILL be in it.
We already spent plenty of money on building up our nuclear arsenal, why not just blow them up? They don't want to negotiate they don't have to. It wouldn't cost a whole lot of money to load up a plane and just nuke Tehran? They already said that they wanted to blow us and our allies off the map, and it is obvious that as soon as they get their hands on nuclear weapons they won't hesitate to use them, so why are we?
STOP THE HESITATION!