By IANS
Tehran : New sanctions against Tehran by the United Nations will not stop the country from pursuing its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday as Iran displayed homemade warfare equipment at a military parade here.
The parade, part of a ceremony to mark the sacred defence week, was held in the premises of the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Imam Khomeini, official news agency IRNA reported.
The sacred week is held to remember the start of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in 1980.
“Those who think, that by using such decayed methods as psychological warfare and economic sanctions, they can stop the Iranian nation’s progress are mistaken,” Ahmadinejad said while delivering a speech at the ceremony, according to RIA Novosti.
Ahmadinejad also asked the foreign forces to quit the region, particularly war-torn Iraq.
The region did not need foreign forces, he said. “Presence of foreign troops is the root cause of all insecurity, disputes and intimidations.”
Urging the foreign military to “make a correct decision, bravely admit their defeats and quit the region”, he said accusing others would not solve any of their problems.
In an apparent display of Iran’s military might, the parade featured a variety of domestically produced weaponry.
DPA adds: For the first time Iran publicly showed its two new homemade fighter jets, dubbed Saeqeh (Thunder), which were successfully tested Thursday. The new planes are touted as similar to the US F-5 and F-18 fighters.
Also exhibited was the upgraded version of the Shahab-3 medium-range missiles, which have a range between 1,300 and 1,800 km and are in the hands of the paramilitary revolutionary guards.
The upgraded version is dubbed “Qadr” (Might) and runs with a new engine using solid fuel for increasing the range of the missiles to 2,000 km, the defence ministry had announced in 2005.
The Shahab-3 missiles had caused grave concern in Israel as they could reach all parts of the Jewish state. Teheran has assured the international community that the missiles are for defensive purposes only.
Iranian military officials said that they had for the first time succeeded in using only Iranian-made military logistics in Saturday’s parade and were able to confront any military aggressions.
Units of the armed forces, the Islamic Revolution’s Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Islamic Republic of Iran Police (IRIP) participated in the inaugural parade held before the president and foreign delegates as well as military and civilian officials.
Ahmadinejad’s comments denouncing UN sanctions amid continuing discussions by the US, Russia, China and the European troika – France, Germany and Britain – over a third round of UN Security Council’s sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
Western countries suspect Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons programme, but Tehran says it wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes only and has intensified cooperation with the IAEA by inviting weapons inspectors to visit a 40-MW heavy water reactor in Arak in late July.
Amid mounting frustration over Iran’s refusal to halt its nuclear programme, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner provoked anger in the Islamic Republic in a hawkish interview broadcast on French TV and radio last Sunday, saying that if Tehran developed an atom bomb, “we must prepare ourselves for the worst”, adding: “the worst means war”.
Ahmadinejad reiterated Saturday that during the entire history of the Islamic Republic the “enemies” failed to break the will of the Iranian people and any further attempts to do so would certainly fail as well.
The Iranian president is due to arrive in New York Sunday to address the upcoming United Nations General Assembly. He is also scheduled to speak at a Columbia University question-and-answer forum Monday.