Ahmadinejad claims Iran is already a nuclear state

NY Daily News

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Iran is a nuclear power and should be treated as such in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper on the eve of his visit to Cairo.

But the Iranian president said his regime has no plans to use that capability for an attack on Israel.

Ahmadinejad is in Cairo for the Islamic Summit Conference, which opens Wednesday. His visit marks the first trip to Egypt by an Iranian leader since 1979. The two nations have grown closer under Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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“They want Iran to go back to what it was in the past, but they won’t succeed. They assume we’ll give in to pressure; such thoughts are misguided,” Ahmadinejad told the newspaper Al-Ahram, according to the Israeli website Haaretz. “We’re already an industrial and nuclear country, a country that has conquered space. For years we have been thinking about sending a human being into space, and we will do that, with Allah’s help.”

“We must ensure development and growth and bring them to pass, and the world must acknowledge our progress,” he added.

Iran has been subject to punishing sanctions by the U.S. and allies over its nuclear program, which Iran claims is peaceful. On Saturday, Vice President Biden said the U.S. is open to direct talks with Iran on the dispute.

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President Obama has vowed he will not allow Iran to become a nuclear state.

In Ahmadinejad’s remarks about Israel, he cast the Jewish state as the aggressor and said Iran is focused on protecting itself.

“They want to attack Iran, but we’re not preparing any attack against them because the purpose of our program is defense,” he said.

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But he also warned Israel about its treatment of Palestinians.

“For us, supporting the Palestinian people is a matter of human importance in every sense,” he said. “The Palestinians must receive their rights, and the Zionists are moving closer and closer toward the edge.”

The Iranian leader said his country also opposes any outside interference in the ongoing slaughter in Syria by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad was forced to flee an ancient mosque in downtown Cairo after a Syrian protester threw his shoes at him – a traditional sign of disdain in the Arab world.

With News Wire Services.

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