Ahmadinejad warns US not to go ahead with Middle East peace plans

TEHRAN - Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned the United States not to go ahead with its peace plans for the Middle East, saying that it would meet with failure as long as Washington continues to confront his government over its nuclear ambitions.

Speaking in a television interview earlier this week, Ahmadinejad said: “They (the US) have security problems in the world and their influence in Iraq and Afghanistan is vanishing. They see that waves of hope, justice-seeking and resistance are rising all over the world inspired by Iran. They want to dominate the world, but Iran doesn’t let them.”

He said Iran’s nuclear program is past the point of no return.

“We have progressed in nuclear technology so much that we are at an irreversible point. The US has two options. Either to continue this wrong policy, or to cooperate with Iran,” The Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

He said the real issue was not Iran’s nuclear program, but its ability to stand in the way of American policy in the Middle East.

As well as being the main financial and military backer of Hamas and Hizbollah, Iran has strong links to anti-American Shia groups in Iraq, and has also been accused of supplying the Taliban in Afghanistan with weapons.

It has been attempting to put together a pro-Iran coalition in Iraq since elections last month which produced no clear winner.

Ahmadinejad’s warning came as the United States, France and other western European countries, said that they are working on a proposal to bring new sanctions on Iran to a vote in the UN Security Council before the end of April, when the chairmanship passes from Japan to Lebanon.

Sanctions are likely to exclude oil exports or refined petrol imports at China’s insistence, experts said. (ANI)