Iran defiant of U.S. sanctions
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Iran has shown a defiant attitude toward new U.S. sanctions imposed due to its suspicious nuclear program.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that the United States will lose out by adopting sanctions against Iran.
"By these sanctions, they (the Americans) in fact sanction themselves," Ahmadinejad told a press conference in Tehran.
"They are unhappy with Iran's boosting economic relations with others," he added.
According to the June 24 bill, any U.S. companies and citizens doing business with Iranian oil refineries, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, or Iranian banks on the U.S. sanctions list would be punished.
Ahmadinejad said Iran can meet its oil and gas consumption with its own production.
He said Iran, with both oil and gas reserves ranking the second in the world, can lift its oil and gas production by 20 million to 30 million liters within one week, and halve its oil and gas consumption without harming economic development. Therefore, he said, Iran can be self-reliant on oil and gas production.
Ahmadinejad listed three preconditions for restarting talks on the Iranian nuclear issue: the parties should clarify their positions on Israeli nuclear weapons; the parties should pronounce their loyalty to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); the parties should make known their intentions for the talks -- whether they are friends or enemies of Iran.
Iran will negotiate in different ways with countries holding different stances on Israeli nuclear weapons, the president said.
Ahmadinejad also said Iran would postpone nuclear talks till late August.
Iran is ready to talk, but only on the basis of a fuel swap agreement with Brazil and Turkey, he added.
Under the May swap agreement, Iran will ship 1,200 kg of 3.5 percent uranium to Turkey in exchange for the 20 percent uranium fuel needed for its reactor.
The Iran sanctions bill passed by the U.S. Congress stirred up various reactions in the international community.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said U.S. unilateral sanctions greatly exceeded the ones imposed by the UN, adding it was unacceptable for the United States to put itself above the UN.
The Russian side also said the sanctions would bring negative impacts on its cooperation with Iran in the areas of trade and energy.
The European Union (EU) announced new restrictive measures on Iran over its nuclear program at a summit on June 17, expressing its worries on the issue.
The EU measures focused on the areas of trade, especially dual-use goods. The country's transport sector and key sectors of the gas and oil industry were also included in the package of restrictive measures.
France has asked for severe sanctions against Iran, but also called for talks within the UN framework to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
On June 19, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that France was ready to start talks with Iran over its nuclear program at the International Atomic Energy Agency "without delay."
The new UN sanctions were not aimed at punishing Iran, but at convincing the country's leaders to return to the negotiating table, Sarkozy said.
