Iran's president
blows off U.N.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Declaring Iran will pursue its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution today that would give the Islamic nation until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment.

"If some think they can still speak with threatening language to the Iranian nation, they must know that they are badly mistaken," Ahmadinejad said in a speech televised live.

In January, Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency it would resume nuclear enrichment work in defiance of the United States and European Union, which believe Tehran wants to build bombs.

That rejection prompted Britain, France and Germany – backed by the U.S. – to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which passed a resolution yesterday threatening sanctions if Tehran does not suspend uranium enrichment by the end of this month.

But a defiant Ahmadinejad said Iran won't turn back from its determined course.

"Our nation has made its decision. We have passed the difficult stages," he said. "Today, the Iranian nation has acquired the nuclear technology."

The Iranian leader insisted his country is united.

"My words are the words of the Iranian nation. Throughout Iran, there is one slogan: 'The Iranian nation considers the peaceful use of nuclear fuel production technology its right,'" he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi accused Western nations of trying to "exert pressure on Iran and block the path of dialogue through a destructive and inappropriate resolution."

The resolution, passed 14-1, also was rejected by Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. The only no vote came from Qatar, which represents Arab states on the Security Council.

Commenting on Israel's conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah, Ahmadinejad today ramped up his rhetoric against the Jewish state – calling its people "a bunch of bloodthirsty savages."

"They know no limitations or boundaries at all any more for killing people," he said, according to a report in Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "Are these people still human beings or just a bunch of bloodthirsty savages?"

Ahmadinejad said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "is acting on behalf of all free-minded world nations and he will in the near future gain final victory."

Previously Ahmadinejad threatened to "wipe Israel off the map." He has denied the Holocaust and suggested Israel be moved to Europe.

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