IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that US President Barack Obama has made a “big mistake” by pushing for UN sanctions, and “blocked the way” to friendly ties with the Iranian people.
“I think President Obama has made a big mistake … he knows the resolution will have no effect,” President Ahmadinejad told reporters in Shanghai, where he was participating in “Iran Day” at the World Expo.
“Very soon he will come to understand he has not made the right choice and he has blocked the way to having friendly ties with the Iranian people.”
He ripped into Mr Obama’s administration for leading the drive to slap Tehran with a new round of UN Security Council sanctions over its suspect nuclear programme and accused Washington of trying to “swallow” the entire Middle East.
“The nuclear program is just a pretext – the government of the US is trying to swallow the entire Middle East region,” the Iranian leader told a press conference.
“On the pretext of controlling the Middle East, the US is trying to control the entire world and Iran is never going to allow the United States to do so,” he added.
He accused Mr Obama of reneging on a pledge to “eliminate the unilateralism and bullying of the previous administration” of George W. Bush.
“Now he has embarked on the same path as Bush… so this is an end of the model for change,” President Ahmadinejad said.
The UN Security Council, which counts Iran’s close ally China as a permanent veto-wielding member, adopted a US-drafted resolution on Wednesday aimed at reining in Tehran’s suspect nuclear programme.
Iran maintains its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful civilian purposes, while Western nations have charged that it is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The resolution expands an arms embargo and bars Iran from sensitive activities such as uranium mining.
It also authorises states to conduct high-seas inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items for Iran and adds 40 entities to a list of people and groups subject to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.
Meanwhile, a Kremlin official has said Russia will not be able to deliver S-300 air-defence missiles to Iran because of the new UN sanctions. The Kremlin official spoke the day after the Foreign Ministry spokesman said the sanctions did not forbid delivery of the missile systems.
Israel and the US have urged Russia not to supply the S-300, which would substantially increase Iran’s defence capability. Russia agreed to sell the missiles in 2007, but has not delivered them.
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