TEHRAN, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on the offensive Wednesday over Western criticism of his country's nuclear programs by vowing to press ahead with the controversial research and branding U.S. President George Bush a war criminal.
After arriving in the southern town of Bushehr, where Russia is building a $800-million nuclear power plant, Ahmadinejad told journalists: "The West's has been living with its colonial dreams throughout the last 200 years, and its decisions on Iran's 'nuclear file" will not influence the decisions of the Iranian people."
He said the country would "resolutely defend its legitimate rights" to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, though other nations suspect it of a pursing a weapons program, and criticized the position of the trio of European negotiating with Iran - Great Britain, France and Germany. The nations recently announced that they would seek to refer the matter to the UN Security Council through the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog.
"The Europeans themselves lost the opportunity to hold negotiations with Iran," he said, alluding to the three countries' decision.
Although Javad Vaeedi, the head of the Iranian delegation for the last round of talks in Brussels January 30, was cautiously optimistic, the Europeans did not change their position, citing a lack of progress. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said the talks had come to a dead end, but did not exclude progress if Iran took relevant measures.
On Tuesday, a leading Iranian negotiator said the referral of Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic if it is found to be in breach of its international commitments, would mark "the end to diplomacy."
Meanwhile, the Iranian leader, who has courted controversy for his apparent hard-line views and call for Israel to be "wiped from the face of the map" at the end of last year, severely criticized the West for exerting pressure on the country.
"Iran has been taking every effort for equal political relations with any state, but when they [Western countries] exert fruitless pressure on us, we can do nothing with this," the president said.
In particular, he turned his sights on Bush, who the previous night had charged Tehran with "defying the world" with its nuclear ambitions, and said "the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons".
Ahmadinejad responded by accusing the U.S. leader of waging war all over the world and "killing millions pursuing economic interests". He said the American leader and his allies should stand before a "court of justice."
In an earlier taste of the mood in Tehran, the presidential press service also said Wednesday that Ahmadinejad had told his South African counterpart Tabo Mbeki during a telephone conversation, that Iran would abandon the supplementary agreement to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that allowed international inspections of its nuclear sites if the Iranian file were to be referred to the UN.
"The Iranian government will abandon the supplementary agreement in line with a law passed by country's parliament," Ahmadinejad said, adding that the West was trying "to revoke the right of any country for peaceful nuclear technology."
Tabo Mbeki, who is also the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), comprising over 100 member-states, said the organization supported Iran's right for peaceful nuclear research and advocated holding regular discussions with Iran, including on nuclear issues.
Russian and Chinese diplomats are set to arrive in Tehran Wednesday to discuss the agreements reached at a Monday meeting of the United States, China, Russia, and the European trio. The gathering agreed that the UN Security Council would not yet make any decision on Iran until March, but will be kept informed about the issue after an upcoming session of the International IAEA's 35-member board of governors.
