There Is No Need Of Nuclear Weapons For Iran: Ahmadinejad

WASHINGTON: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday Tehran has no need of nuclear arms, but in an interview with a US television did not explicitly rule them out.

“Nuclear arms we believe they belong to the past and the past generation….We do not see any need for such weapons,” Ahmadinejad said.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he regretted the deaths of protestors during demonstrations, which erupted after Iran’s disputed June elections.

“All of us regret the fact that some people were killed,” Ahmadinejad told media television, in excerpts of the interview which is to be aired in full on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad’s June 12 re-election unleashed massive street protests that shook the Islamic regime and divided the ruling elites and powerful clerical groups.

The unrest officially left about 30 people dead — opposition groups claim 72 died — and isolated Iran even further from world powers who are threatening fresh sanctions over the country’s suspect nuclear program.

The Iranian president added he had also been saddened by the death of a young woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, whose killing during a protest rally in Tehran generated an international outcry.

“I was saddened, as well all the Iranian people were saddened,” he told media Thursday.

But he added, “We think that this incident is a suspicious death. We are treating it as a suspicious death. We are very sorry about this and I am sure that the truth will come to light.”

Neda, as she is more commonly known, became an icon for the opposition, which is protesting Ahmadinejad’s re-election, after an Internet video showing her final moments was seen around the world.

Ahmadinejad has already called for a probe into her death, saying there had been fabricated reports about the incident and “widespread propaganda” by the foreign media.

The street protests were the worst violence to rock Iran in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic.

Around 4,000 protesters who opposed Ahmadinejad were initially arrested. While most of them have since been released, 140 have been put on trial including leading reformist politicians, activists and employees of the British and French embassies.

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There Is No Need Of Nuclear Weapons For Iran: Ahmadinejad was first posted on September 18, 2009 at 11:13 am.
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