West will suffer more than Iran, Ahmadinejad says
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-09 16:29

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Western countries were vulnerable and would suffer more than Iran if they continued to try to impede its attempts to develop nuclear technology, local media reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures before speaking in Khorramabad 491 km (305 miles) southwest of Tehran March 8, 2006. Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it could inflict 'harm and pain' to match whatever punishment Washington persuaded the U.N. Security Council to dole out for Tehran's refusal to give up atomic research. [REUTERS]

Speaking a day after it became clear that the U.N. Security Council would take up Iran's nuclear case, Ahmadinejad said Tehran would not be bullied or humiliated.

"They (Western countries) know that they are not capable of inflicting the slightest blow on the Iranian nation because they need the Iranian nation," the semi-official ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying in a speech in western Iran.

"They will suffer more and they are vulnerable," he said, without elaborating.

A senior Iranian security official warned on Wednesday Iran could inflict "harm and pain" to match whatever punishment Washington persuaded the Security Council to mete out for Iran's refusal to heed calls that it halt atomic fuel research.

Iran says it wants to master nuclear fuel cycle technology to feed atomic reactors generating electricity. Washington and its allies believe Iran wants nuclear fuel to make atomic bombs.

Some Iranian officials have warned that if pressured further over the nuclear case Tehran could restrict its vital oil exports to push prices even higher.

They have also hinted Iran could use its influence with militants in regional troublespots such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine to stir up trouble for the United States and Israel.

"Our enemies will never succeed in forcing the Iranian nation to step back on its rights over peaceful nuclear technology because it never accepts humiliation," state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Thursday.

"This nation ... will not allow others to treat it with a bullying attitude, even if those who treat it with a bullying attitude are international bullies," he added, ISNA reported.

ISNA said Iranian lawmakers chorused "Death to America" on Thursday in response to Iran's case being sent to the Security Council.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said hundreds of people would form a symbolic human chain on Thursday around the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran -- the most sensitive facility in Iran's nuclear program.