In response to President Obama’s announcement that a new U.S. policy to narrow the conditions in which the United States would use nuclear weapons against another state does not apply to countries such as Iran and North Korea, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Obama that Iran would not yield to threats.
“Obama made these latest remarks because he is inexperienced and an amateur politician,” Ahmadinejad said on Iranian television. “American politicians are like cowboys. Whenever they have legal shortcomings, their hands go to their guns.”
President’s Obama changes to U.S. weapons policy were announced before a nuclear summit in Washington next week. He renounced the development of new atomic weapons and ruled out the use of nuclear arms against non-nuclear armed states. But this came with a condition. Countries would be spared a U.S. nuclear response only if they are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran and North Korea would thus not be protected and be potential targets.
“Yesterday some news was published saying that he (Obama) has threatened to use nuclear and biochemical weapons against countries that don’t comply with America and which do not yield to America’s pressure,” Ahmadinejad said in the speech from the northwestern city of Urmia. “We hope these reports are false.”
Iran will host its own Nuclear Disarmament Conference on April 17-18. China, which has been courted by Obama to support sanctions against Iran, has said it might attend.

Iran warns Israel

Another member of the cabinet made comments on April 7 about Israel. In response to a question about a potential Israeli strike, Brig Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s minister of Defense, said, “If they (Israel) attack Iran, possibly no trace will be left from the Zionist regime (Israel),” Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying by semi-official Mehr news agency.
A deputy of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the elite Revolutionary Guards made similar threats on Tuesday.

The United States and its allies hope to get new sanctions imposed in the coming weeks over Iran’s nuclear enrichment work, after failing to reach a fuel-swap agreement with Tehran.
Iran, which says it needs nuclear technology to generate power and for medical reasons, says it would hand over its low-grade enriched uranium in return for higher-grade uranium, but the swap must be carried out inside the country under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“We have a positive attitude toward the fuel swapping idea … provided it is done within Iran,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference on Wednesday.

source: Reuters

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