Ahmadinejad avers readiness for ‘pressures’

Amid domestic political strife and talks of western confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program, the country’s president says his government has prepared itself for pressures.

“If some believe that through accusations, impoliteness, insults, and spreading of lies they can force us to retreat from the values of the revolution, they are gravely mistaken,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with war veterans, IRNA, the state news agency, reported.

The remarks came after diplomats from the six world powers, known as P5+1, met in Frankfurt to discuss Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and warned Tehran with pressure over its nuclear activities.

Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, urged Iran to either accept their offer of direct talks or face confrontation over its much-debated program.

“If they are ready to engage with us, we’re ready to cooperate with them,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told reporters on Friday. “But if they decide to go for confrontation, then confrontation will happen.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s political stage is still grappling with the post-election unrest and its aftermath with opposition leaders vowing to continue their defiance, despite a Majlis vote of approval on all but three of Ahmadinejad’s 21 nominees for his cabinet.

President Ahmadinejad reacted to the issue, explaining, “We have prepared ourselves to be subjected to pressures and in my government no withdrawal from the principles — not even one iota — will take place.”