Khatami warns US attack would turn Iran into a "scorching hell" скачать в хорошем качестве

Khatami warns US attack would turn Iran into a "scorching hell"

(11 Feb 2005) Iranian President Mohammed Khatami took a swipe at the United States on Thursday, saying the country would will stand united and turn into a "scorching hell" if any aggressor should attack it. Khatami's comments, made to tens of thousands who had gathered in freezing temperatures in Tehran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, were part of an escalating exchange of rhetoric between the United States and Iran. The United States accuses Iran of maintaining a nuclear weapons programme, which Iran says is for peaceful energy purposes. "Will this nation allow the feet of an aggressor to touch this land?" Khatami asked at the public rally. "If, God forbid, it happens, Iran will turn into a scorching hell for the aggressors," he said, drawing chants of "Death to America" from the crowd. The comments were uncharacteristically strong coming from Khatami, who is widely recognised as a moderate leader in the country. Last week U.S. President George W. Bush accused Iran of being "the world's primary state sponsor of terror" and last month said his administration won't rule out the possibility of using military force against Iran over its nuclear programme. Until Khatami's statements, some had pointed to a possible softening in Iran's position in recent comments made by Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, who said that his country wants to resolve its differences with the United States. But in his speech on Thursday, Khatami was adamant that Iran won't scrap its nuclear programme, suspected by Washington as a programme to produce a nuclear bomb. He said Iranian scientists had worked hard to develop nuclear technology on their own and will not stop due to "the illegitimate demands of others". He went on to say that Iran would continue down the path of developing peaceful nuclear technology. "The Iranian nation is not looking for war, violence and confrontation," Khatami said. "But the world should know that the Iranian nation won't tolerate any aggression and will stand united against aggression despite differences," referring to an internal divide in Iran between hard-liners and the reformists that he represents. Thousands of Iranians had travelled through heavy snow and converged at Azadi, or Freedom, Square to listen to Khatami's speech on the anniversary of the revolution that toppled the pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought hard-line Islamic clerics to power. Khatami's speech is the most recent in a war of words between U.S. and Iranian officials that did not seem to ease even after comments made by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice last week that a military strike against Iran is "simply not on the agenda at this point." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...