Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday acknowledged possibility of an Israeli or US attack on his country as real, but said that the Islamic Republic would offer "a decisive response" to such an attack. Ahmadinejad’s comments came in an interview with Russia Today.
“They wish to do it, they want to do it, but they know about our power. They know that we are going to give them a decisive response,” he said. “We have a saying in our language: ‘If someone throws a smaller stone, you should respond with a bigger stone.’We will defend ourselves within our capabilities.”
Ahmadinejad stated that despite recently stepping up construction work on centrifuges which can more effectively enrich uranium, Iran’s objective is to develop peaceful nuclear energy.
“We do not want nuclear weapons for a few reasons… This weapon is inhumane. Because of our faith, we are against it. Our religion says it is prohibited, and we are religious people,” Ahmadinejad said. “Nuclear weapons have no capabilities today. If any country tries to build a nuclear bomb, in fact, they waste their money on resources and, secondly, they create a big danger to themselves.”
He added: “The Americans have nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons. Could they win in Iraq or in Afghanistan? Could nuclear weapons help the Zionist regime win in Lebanon and Gaza? Could nuclear weapons help the former Soviet Union avoid collapse?” he said. “Nuclear weapons are the means of the previous century. This century is the century of knowledge and thinking. It is the century of human beings. It is the century of culture and knowledge.”
Meanwhile, Russia said on Sunday that it will look to revive nuclear talks between Iran and the world’s biggest economic and military powers this week, hoping its special relationship with Tehran can help jolt back to life negotiations that some analysts consider "dead in the water."
Russian Presidential Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev is due to meet his Iranian counterpart and Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Monday and is expected to raise a Russian plan to restart the talks that collapsed in January.
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