TEHRAN, 6 June 2007 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned yesterday that it was too late to stop Iran’s nuclear program despite new efforts by Western powers to impose more UN sanctions against the Islamic republic.
“It is too late to stop the progress of Iran,” Ahmadinejad told reporters. “We have broken through to a new stage and it is too late to push us back.”
At a typically defiant news conference, Ahmadinejad also warned the UN Security Council of the dangers of seeking to pressure Iran, telling the world body not to risk playing with a “lion’s tail.”
“We advise them not to indulge in child’s play... They say that Iran is a lion sat down in a corner. And we tell them: Do not play with the lion’s tail.”
His comments were the latest warning from Tehran it has no intention of yielding to UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment activities, despite Western pressure for a third UN sanctions resolution against Tehran.
Ahmadinejad also launched a withering attack against Western powers, which he accused of seeking to dominate other peoples of the world and sow division by invading and arming states.
“If the countries of the region unite, very certainly, the great powers will not be able to dominate the world,” he said at the news conference marking the 18th anniversary of the death of Iran’s revolutionary founder Rohullah Khomeini.
Ahmadinejad predicted that Washington would never be able to hurt the Islamic republic even though the United States has never ruled out military action to bring Iran to heel over its nuclear drive.
The president once again chose to set out his vision of the world, saying that the era of “domination” by Iran’s Western enemies was coming to and end and would be replaced by a new era of “understanding.”
“With every day that passes, the enemy becomes more hideous and the years to come will see a strengthening of the forces of resistance in the region,” he said.
In another sign of the rising tensions, Ahmadinejad was admonished by the United States and other Western powers for saying a “countdown” has begun that will end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying Israel.
