By RIA Novosti,
Tehran : Iran’s president said on Wednesday that the West had lost the confrontation with Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
The diplomatic standoff between Iran and the West began almost six years ago over suspicions that Tehran was secretly developing atomic weapons. Iran is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN Security Council sanctions after defying international demands to halt uranium enrichment, which it claims is needed for electricity generation.
“Our enemies used every opportunity to pressurize us in the political and nuclear fields, and threatened us with the use of force. However, they have lost and they have no room for maneuver,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised statement.
In a message to U.S. President George W. Bush, the Iranian leader said his time was over. “You cannot damage a single centimeter of Iran’s territory,” he said.
Iran maintains that it has never been involved in research into the development of nuclear weapons.
A report released by the U.S. intelligence community in late 2007 said that Iran had ceased attempts to create a nuclear bomb in 2003. U.S. President George Bush responded that, “Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the know how to make a nuclear weapon.”
When asked if military action remained an option, the president answered, “The best diplomacy – effective diplomacy – is one in which all options are on the table.”