Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Friday that his country "will not bow to injustice and pressure," the day before the expiry of a UN deadline to suspend sensitive nuclear work.
"We will not bow to injustice and pressure. If they want to attack the rights of the Iranian people, we will stamp shame and regret on them," he said in a speech carried live on state television.
"Thanks to God, we are a nuclear state. We want peace and security and we are not a threat to anyone. We are ready for dialogue on disarming the big powers in order to reinforce peace and security," he added.
"They think that by frowning, adopting resolutions and going from one organisation to the other, they can hide their horrible face and unjust decisions behind the agency (IAEA) and the Security Council and make us back down," the president fumed in a speech in Zanjan around 300 kilometres west of Tehran.
"We have obtained nuclear fuel technology by ourselves, and nobody can deprive us of it," he repeated.
{{/usCountry}}"We have obtained nuclear fuel technology by ourselves, and nobody can deprive us of it," he repeated.
{{/usCountry}}Iran insists it has a right to enrich to make reactor fuel, but the process can be extended to make nuclear weapons. Western powers, led by the United States, are convinced Iran is seeking either a nuclear bomb or the "strategic capacity" to make one.
The country had been asked by the UN Security Council to freeze uranium enrichment by Friday, but has already said that it will not halt the work -- which makes nuclear reactor fuel but what can also be the explosive core of atom bombs.