Iran's hardline President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, seen in this file photo, on Wednesday stayed defiant on the
country's nuclear program, warning that the Western countries can not
isolate the Iranian people through more sanctions. (Xinhua/Reuters
File Photo) Photo
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TEHRAN,
March 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran remained defiant over its nuclear program on Thursday
as six world powers reached agreement on a draft resolution imposing tougher
sanctions against Tehran on its unyielding nuclear ambitions.
With his customary defiant rhetoric, Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that UN Security Council resolutions
could not stop his country from developing nuclear program.
"Enemies of the Iranian nation are now seeking to use
the UN Security Council to prevent Iran's progress," the official IRNA news
agency quoted Ahmadinejad as telling a rally in the central Yazd province.
Ahmadinejad's remarks came just before the six powers
-- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- announced
the agreement after a series of arduous consultations by their ambassadors
during the past two weeks with the latest one on Thursday morning.
Referring to possible further UN sanctions on Iran,
Ahmadinejad said that sanctions have long been imposed on the country but still
it had managed to achieve success in the nuclear field.
"What is the point of issuing such resolutions? The
Iranian people have mastered the nuclear fuel cycle," the Iranian president
said.
"Orders and decisions of the kind would have no
importance to the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said, adding "You can again
impose sanctions on us and see for yourselves what effect they will have."
Meanwhile, he reiterated the peaceful nature of
Iran's nuclear activities, saying they were "completely legal and monitored by
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."
Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel
said on Thursday that increasing threats of more sanctions to be imposed on Iran
for its nuclear activities were being made in line with Washington's Greater
Middle East Initiative.
"The Americans who entered the region on the pretext
of bringing democracy and freedom are now sowing discord among Shiite and Sunni
Muslims," Adel said at a meeting with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed
Naji Otri.
The Iranian parliament chief said that Iran and
Syria, as influential nations in the region, should be vigilant and strive to
thwart the "satanic" plots of the United States.
Also on Thursday, Iranian Oil Minister Kazem
Vaziri-Hamaneh said that Iran was not threatened by the looming new UN
sanctions,adding that the Islamic republic had been under U.S. economic embargo
in the past 25 years.
He made the remarks while speaking to reporters on
the sidelines of the two-day Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) meeting (March 14-15) in Austrian capital Vienna.
"Given the sanctions against our country over the
past 25 years and the development projects implemented in the country, the
procedure will continue," he told IRNA.
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