In a speech to thousands of supporters yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at the US and vowed to resist "bully countries" that seek to constrain Tehran's nuclear program, a day before the UN nuclear agency is likely to vote to haul the country before the Security Council.
Speaking hours after US President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, the Iranian leader derided the US as a "hollow superpower" that is "tainted with the blood of nations" and said Tehran would continue its nuclear program.
"Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully realized," Ahmadinejad told the crowd in the city of Bushehr in southern Iran, where Russia is finishing the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant.
"Our nation can't give in to the coercion of some bully countries who imagine they are the whole world," he added.
The crowd responded with chants of "Nuclear energy is our right!"
Personal jibe
In a personal jibe at Bush and the US Supreme Court decision that decided the 2000 election, Ahmadinejad said: "Let me devote my last word to that gentleman who with the power of a billion dollar election campaign and a court ruling has become the president of a big country."
Referring to the US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, which border Iran, Ahmadinejad told Bush: "Those whose hands are tainted with blood of nations and are involved in wars and oppression in any part of the world ... accuse our nation of human rights violations ... we, hopefully, in the near future will put you on trial in courts that will be set up by nations."
Iran's defense minister warned all countries yesterday against considering an attack on Iran's nuclear installations.
"Any attack against Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities will meet a swift and crushing response from the armed forces," General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The comments came after Bush said on Tuesday night that "the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons." He said the US "will continue to rally the world to confront these threats."
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors is to meet in Vienna, Austria, today, and is expected to report Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council. The five permanent members of the Security Council agreed on Tuesday that Iran should be hauled before the powerful body.
Atomic bomb
On Tuesday, the IAEA said in a report that Iran obtained documents and drawings on the black market that serve no other purpose than to make an atomic warhead. The report also confirmed information recently provided by diplomats familiar with the Iran probe that Tehran has not started small-scale uranium enrichment since announcing it would earlier this month.
The findings about the drawings were contained in a confidential report to the IAEA board that was leaked to The Associated Press. A three-year IAEA probe has not found firm evidence of Iran trying to build nuclear weapons, but it has not been able to dismiss such suspicions.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)