President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran will not retreat one iota from its nuclear goals in spite of “western bullying“.
“Anyone willing to negotiate with Iran should bear in mind that the Islamic Republic is committed to its principles,“ President Ahmadinejad told reporters on Wednesday during his provincial visit to Khuzestan province.
He asserted that Tehran will defend its inalienable right to a peaceful nuclear program.
Iran is not afraid of ’threats’, Ahmadinejad said, adding that the Iranian nation has established a united front against “the bullying powers“.
His remarks come as Israel renews threats against Iran over its nuclear program.
On Tuesday, during a briefing on the strategic picture of Middle East in 2009, a senior Israeli military officer said Tel Aviv might launch an attack against Tehran in the coming year.
The official, whose name has not been disclosed, accused Iran of being “on the way to becoming a nuclear country“, urging the international community to take “decisive and timely“ measures, including economic sanctions against Tehran, Xinhua reported.
According to the official, “a military option“ was possible and nothing had been “taken off the table“ with respect to Iran’s nuclear activities.
The US and Israel accuse Iran, signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of running a covert nuclear military program.
Tehran rejects the allegations, saying it only seeks nuclear technology to generate electricity for meeting the growing domestic demand.

Sarkozy’s Arrogance
Reacting to the recent remarks made by his French counterpart, Ahmadinejad said Nicolas Sarkozy was imitating the ’arrogant’ style of pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.
Sarkozy said on Monday he could not shake hands with Ahmadinejad because he had said Israel should be “wiped off the map“, claiming that Ahmadinejad did not represent Iran.
Ahmadinejad accused Sarkozy of adopting “an arrogant pharaonic style“ toward the Tehran government.
“Sir, no one in Iran has demanded to negotiate or shake hands with you,“ Ahmadinejad said.
In Islamic tradition and the Qur’an, pharaohs are a symbol of arrogance and oppression.
Ahmadinejad insisted Iran had no intention of recognizing Israel. “Whoever wants to negotiate with Iran should know that Iran will never recognize the Zionist regime (Israel),“ he said.
“Those who want to negotiate with Iran should know that Iran is calling for the obliteration of crime, aggression, occupation and the genesis of Zionist thinking from the world.“

Khuzestan’s Potentials
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if the potentials and talents of Khuzestan province are reflected properly, it will attract attention and its trend of development will improve.
Addressing a news conference with local reporters in Ahvaz, the president described constructive criticism by the media as useful in accelerating the province’s development and said investments in the province will go up if its potentials are introduced.
He added that the people of Khuzestan province showed that they are ready to defend the values of the Islamic Revolution.
“Love for supreme jurisprudence and Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Infallible Household, rich culture and spirit of sacrifice are among the main features of Khuzestanis,“ he said, adding that the province enjoys cultural and religious distinctions, which can pave the way for its prosperity.
Describing public power as a manifestation of divine power, he said the people’s presence on the scene has disturbed the enemy’s equations.
“As in the case of nuclear issue, the people’s presence on the scene has made the enemy withdraw and accept the indisputable rights of the Iranian nation,“ he said.
The Cabinet approved 275 ratifications in different fields, including agriculture and industry, during its provincial visit.
Ahmadinejad stressed that all the ratifications will be fully implemented, stating that funds have been earmarked in next year’s budget.

Thousands of people gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday for a mass protest organized by Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement against Israel’s crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Streets were cordoned off as protesters waving Palestinian flags and yellow Hezbollah flags poured into the Hezbollah stronghold for the rally in Al-Raya Stadium as loudspeakers blasted out a speech by its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah boy scouts and women in black chadors carried two huge Palestinian flags through the crowd.
Some protesters chanted “Death to Israel! Death to America!“ as others carried placards reading, “No peace if it leads to humanitarian catastrophe“ and “May God protect our leader Nasrallah.“
Other demonstrations are also being held in cities in the south, north and in the Bekaa Valley, east of the capital.
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed after the democratically-elected government of Hamas ousted forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas in June 2007, was tightened even further last month because of an upsurge in violence.
Tensions remained high in and around Gaza on Friday as Hamas declared an end to a troubled six-month truce with Israel and warned they would respond to any attack.
The truce had been uneasy ever since it went into effect on June 19 and violence has increased since early November, with 18 Palestinians killed and Israel reporting more than 250 rocket and mortar fire attacks.
A statement from Hamas’s armed wing, Izzeddin Al-Qassam, said, “We announce that the calm between us and the Zionist enemy has finished entirely and it will not be renewed as a result of the occupation’s denial of its fundamental conditions and obligations.“
It said any Israeli incursion would “open the doors of the battle wide and would be met by a painful response from our side“.
An Israeli military source said two rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel as the truce was declared to have ended, and that a cross-border shooting from Gaza at a collective farm also resulted in no casualties.
Hamas stopped short of threatening an immediate escalation of violence against Israel, which had hoped to extend the truce and appears wary of a confrontation that could cause heavy casualties on both sides.

A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with the Earth.
“We’re looking for the killer asteroid,“ James Heasley, of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, last week told the committee that the National Academy of Sciences created at Congress’ request, wire sources reported.
The US Congress asked the academy to conduct the study after astronomers were unable to eliminate an extremely slight chance that an asteroid called Apophis will slam into Earth with devastating effect in 2036.
Apophis was discovered in 2004 about 17 million miles from Earth on a course that would overlap our planet’s orbit in 2029 and return seven years later. Observers said that the asteroidÑa massive boulder left over from the birth of the solar systemÑis about 1,000 feet wide and weighs at least 50 million tons.
After further observations, astronomers reported that the asteroid would skim by Earth harmlessly in 2029, but it has a one in 44,000 probability of slamming into our planet on Easter Sunday, April 13, 2036.
Small changes in Apophis’ path that could make the difference between a hit or a miss are possible, according to Jon Giorgini, a planetary analyst in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The academy panel is headed by Irwin Shapiro, a former director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. It has a two-part assignment from Congress: Detect and deflect asteroids that might hit earth.
First, the Shapiro committee is supposed to propose the best way to detect and analyze 90 percent of the so-called “near Earth objects“ orbiting between Mars and Venus that are wider than 460 feet by 2020.
About 20 percent of these are identified as potentially hazardous objects because they might pass within 5 million miles of Earth (20 times the distance to the Moon).
More than 5,000 near Earth objects, including 789 potentially hazardous objects, have been identified so far.
Johnson predicted that future surveys will find at least 66,000 near Earth objects and 18,000 potentially hazardous objects.The Shapiro panel’s second task is to review various methods that have been proposed to deflect or destroy an incoming asteroid and recommend the best options. They include a nuclear bomb, conventional explosives or a spacecraft that would push or pull the asteroid off its course.

Iranians celebrate the longest night of the year known as Yalda Night with a family get-together, feasts and recitation of poetry.