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U.S. President Barack Obama speaking Friday at press conference in the White House.
 (Reuters)
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Last update - 16:08 12/07/2009
Ahmadinejad vows to toughen stance toward West
By News Agencies
Tags: Israel News, Obama 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Saturday to toughen Iran's stance toward the West during his new term in office, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"Without any doubt, in the new [presidential] term the government will have a more decisive and powerful approach toward the West," said Ahmadinejad, escalating his war of words with U.S. President Barack Obama and western nations.

Ahmadinejad made the comments at a meeting of judiciary officials in Tehran, speaking one day after Obama rejected the Iranian president's demand that he apologize for meddling in internal Iranian affairs.
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Ahmadinejad, whose disputed June 12 election victory prompted widespread protests followed by a brutal state-led crackdown, again decried Obama and leaders of European countries Saturday for having "insulted" the Iranian nation with what he called interference in internal matters, IRNA reported.

Obama and European states have urged the Iranian government to solve the post-election turmoil peacefully and avoid violence in suppressing protests against alleged election fraud.

"From now on we will push you to a court of justice in every international meeting," Ahmadinejad said, without elaborating.

"This time the reply by the Iranian nation will be decisive and harsh and make you [the West] regret and be ashamed, he said in an apparent reference to Western criticism of the election.

The Iranian president added that, "The destiny of [former U.S. president George W.] Bush is still fresh," insisting that world powers should stop interfering in other states and not damage their prestige with imperialistic and arrogant rhetoric.

Obama scoffs at Ahmadinejad's demand for apology

Obama's criticism of Iran on Friday turned into an unusually personal war of words. To Ahmadinejad's demand he apologize for meddling, Obama shot back that the regime should "think carefully" about answers owed to protestors it has arrested, bludgeoned and killed.

"The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous," Obama said. "We see it and we condemn it."

The president spoke at an East Room news conference capping his third set of meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of several European leaders who spoke out more forcefully, more quickly than Obama on the unrest in Iran that followed the disputed June 12 elections.

"We will not forget," Merkel said.

Ahmadinejad told Obama Thursday to "show your repentance" for criticizing Tehran's response.

"I don't take Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements seriously about apologies, particularly given the fact that the United States has gone out of its way not to interfere with the election process in Iran," Obama responded sternly.

"I would suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad think carefully about the obligations he owes to his own people," he added. "And he might want to consider looking at the families of those who've been beaten or shot or detained. And, you know, that's where I think Mr. Ahmadinejad and others need to answer their questions."

It was Obama's first direct criticism of any of Iran's leaders. Even more, it was coupled with his first specific boost for Mousavi. "Mousavi has shown to have captured the imagination or the spirit of forces within Iran that were interested in opening up," Obama said.

The remark sought to clarify what many view as Obama's biggest misstep - saying last week in a television interview that there may not be much difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. But it appeared to swing over to an outright endorsement of Mousavi, though White House press secretary Robert Gibbs denied it was meant that way.

Obama also said for the first time that his offer to loosen the decades-old U.S. diplomatic freeze with Iran through direct talks is now in question.

"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama said, without elaborating.

Gibbs said Obama was "more stating the obvious" that no talks are possible while developments are still unfolding. And Obama said that an existing system of multilateral talks with Iran over its suspected goal of building a nuclear bomb, involving nations including the U.S., Europe, China and Russia, must continue.

"The clock is ticking. Iran is developing a nuclear capacity at a fairly rapid clip," he said.

Merkel agreed there must be no letup among nations trying to stop Iran's nuclear development, which Tehran insists is aimed at providing only electric power, not weapons. She said "we have to bring Russia and China alongside," referring to the two nations most historically unwilling to get tough with Iran over the nuclear standoff.

Berlusconi denies saying Obama 'weak' on Iran

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied on Saturday an Israeli newspaper report that he had described U.S. President Barack Obama as being "weak" on Iran during a meeting with Israel's prime minister in Rome.

Maariv reported in an opinion piece that when Berlusconi met Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday, Netanyahu said Obama would "find it difficult to hold dialogue" with Iran after protest erupted over Iran's disputed election result.

The paper said Berlusconi replied: "Obama is weak. He is in a difficult situation. I talk to people in America and they tell me there has been criticism of his weak response."

Maariv's online edition quoted Berlusconi saying Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had talked to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "and she has a firmer stance on Iran"

Italy's cabinet office had already denied the Maariv story, saying it "in no way reflected the spirit of the conversation".

But Berlusconi, who hosts Obama at a G8 summit next month, elaborated, saying: "I simply said the American administration was thinking about how to respond to Iran and someone in the Democratic Party insisted on Obama taking a stronger stance."


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