Public rallies marked the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Feb. 11. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed ralliers at TehranÕs Azadi Square.

TEHRAN, Feb. 11--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday the world should know that the Iranian nation will forcefully defend the values and achievements of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Addressing a rally held to mark the 28th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution at Tehran’s Azadi Square, the chief executive noted that the government is doing its best to pursue the path of the late Imam Khomeini, the 1979 Islamic Revolution and martyrs, and introduce them to the world.
“The enemies have exerted many political and psychological pressures in the past 28 years. They have also tried to create a rift among Iranians,“ he said.
The president referred to the 1980-88 Iraq-imposed war as an example of such pressures, ISNA reported.
“They supported Iran’s enemy, but their plots were nullified due to the vigilance of the leadership throughout the post-revolution era,“ he said.
Commenting on Iran’s nuclear program, Ahmadinejad pointed out that although the parliament has permitted the government to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty and reduce the level of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the government intends to achieve the nuclear right of the Iranian nation within a legal framework.
Ahmadinejad noted that Iran has excelled in making scientific breakthroughs and that is why the enemy is infuriated with us.
“The day after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the enemies began to devise plots, including economic sanctions and the Iraq-imposed war against Iran. One day they introduced Iranians as warmongers and the next day they accused Iran of violating human rights,“ he said.
Noting that everyone knows that all nations need nuclear energy, the president said the arrogant world powers want to prevent developing nations from gaining access to such technology.
“We are the only nation that has allowed journalists from other countries to visit our nuclear sites and no country has been as transparent as Iran in this field,“ he said.
He asserted that the Iranians will witness more breakthroughs in the industrial, agricultural and the nuclear fields by April 10.
Referring to the Zionist Israeli regime’s recent attempts to reshape the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the president said Israel should know that its problems cannot be resolved by damaging holy places such as Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Commenting on the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ahmadinejad pointed out that if they had listened to Iran’s advice to leave Iraq, the Arab country would not have been in such a chaotic situation today.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 11--Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said on Sunday the Islamic Republic is prepared to return to negotiations to seek an agreement over its nuclear program.
“The political will of Iran is aimed at a negotiated settlement of the case. We don’t want to aggravate the situation in the region,“ Larijani said in a speech to a high-level security conference here, AFP reported.
Larijani said he had sent a letter to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), offering to work out issues “within three weeks“.
“I have written to Mr. ElBaradei to say we are ready within three weeks to have the modality to solve all the outstanding issues with you,“ Larijani said.
Talks between Iran, three European nations and the IAEA collapsed last year, leading to limited UN sanctions being imposed on Tehran for its failure to stop enriching uranium.
Iran risks more extensive economic sanctions if it fails to comply with a UN Security Council deadline of February 21 to stop enriching uranium.
In Munich, Larijani said Iran was prepared to limit enrichment “to certain levels“.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.
Larijani said Iran’s civilian nuclear activity was not a danger to Israel.
“We are posing no threat to Israel. We have no intention of aggression against any country,“ he told the Munich Conference on Security Policy.
On the sidelines of the Munich forum, Larijani had his first meeting with EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana since talks broke down last September.
Solana said it had been “a good meeting“ designed “to see if a possibility existed to find a solution“.
During his speech in the conference, Larijani stressed his country’s efforts to promote peace and stability in the Middle East, expressing Iran’s readiness to host a comprehensive Mideast peace conference. The annual conference is attended by some 250 global decision-makers, including 40 heads of state.
More than 500 top political decision-makers and experts from 40 countries attended the three-day security conference which was due to end late Sunday.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 11--Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized the United States and its Western allies on Saturday for what he said was an attempt to force their will on the world.
Speaking at an annual gathering of top security and defense officials in Germany, Putin attacked the concept of a “unipolar world“--implying the United States is the sole superpower--and said US actions abroad had made conflicts worse, Reuters reported.
“What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master,“ Putin said.
Putin said the United States had repeatedly overstepped its national borders in questions of international security, a policy that he said had made the world less, not more, safe.
“Unilateral actions have not resolved conflicts but have made them worse,“ he said, adding that force should only be used when backed by the United Nations Security Council.
He called on European states, many of which have disagreed with US policy in Iraq and elsewhere, to be more active in international affairs, stressing that Russia had no intention of changing its approach to foreign policy.
Putin has kicked off a Middle East tour seeking to enhance ties with regional US allies after launching a scathing attack on Washington’s ’ruinous’ foreign policy.
On the first leg of the trip in Saudi Arabia, the leaders of the world’s two largest oil producers will get together Sunday to discuss regional problems and bilateral links, including possible arms sales.
Putin will then head to Qatar and Jordan on the three-day tour aimed at bolstering energy and military links in a region where US influence has been uncontested since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

TEHRAN, Feb. 11--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini welcomed on Saturday the Hamas-Fatah deal in the Mecca meeting for the formation of a national unity government, calling it a “constructive move“ for consolidating Palestinian unity.
“Iran welcomes any move that contributes to unity among Palestinians, considering it a step in line with the interests of the Palestinian nation and the Muslim Ummah,“ said Hosseini on Saturday, IRNA reported.
Thanking all Palestinian parties and Saudi government for contributing to the deal, Hosseini said the wise and resistant Palestinian nation knows that the measures of the occupier Zionist regime of Israel are the main cause of tension and insecurity.
“We are happy that provisions of the recent deal are in line with the settlement of domestic problems and elimination of internal crisis, and that the deal is mainly directed for foiling conspiracies resulting from the US and Zionist regime’s interference,“ he said.
He noted that Iran considers unity and solidarity among all Palestinian groups and Muslim states as the only way to confront the aggressions and conspiracies of the Zionist enemy.
Hosseini declared that the Zionist regime’s recent desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque calls for speedy action to foil attempts aimed at ruining the Islamic sites in Beit-ul-Moqaddas.