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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking to supporters during his visit to Ahvaz, Iran on Tuesday. (Reuters)
Last update - 06:56 05/01/2007
Lieberman asks new UN chief to revoke Iran's membership
By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Minister of Strategic Threats Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday sent a letter to new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking him to revoke Iran's UN membership, Army Radio reported.

Lieberman also called to pressure the UN Security Council to impose significant sanctions on Iran, according to the radio. "If the world allows Iran to achieve nuclear capability, Israel will be the first to pay the price," he wrote.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scorned the Security Council's imposing sanctions on Iran, telling a crowd Tuesday that Iran had humiliated the United States in the past and would do so again.
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Speaking in the southwestern provincial capital of Ahvaz, Ahmadinejad
said the Security Council's resolution of December 23 was invalid and had left the world body's reputation in tatters.

His speech made no referrence to series of bombings that have occurred in
Ahvaz, believed to stem from tension between the city's Arabic-speaking
community and the Farsi-speaking authorities. Nor did Ahmadinejad refer to the results of Iran's local elections of December 15, in which his political allies were heavily defeated.

The Security Council voted unanimously to bar all countries from selling
materials and technology to Iran that could contribute to its nuclear and
missile programs. It also froze the assets of 10 Iranian companies and 12
individuals related to those programs.

"Let the world know that from the Iranian nation's point of view, this
resolution has no validity," Ahmadinejad said.

He said the United States was the main power behind the resolution, and warned Washington: "I want you to know that the Iranian nation has humiliated you many times, and it will humiliate you in future."

The United States has led the drive to stop Iran from enriching uranium - a process that produces the material for either nuclear reactors or bombs. Iran denies that it seeks to build atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is limited to the generation of electricity.

Ahmadinejad said the sanctions were not important but were part of a campaign of psychological warfare against Iran that was designed to provoke dissent within the country.

"You are nobody," he told the Western powers. Recalling the West's support for Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein, during its eight year war with Iran in the 1980s, he said: "If all the powers that supported Saddam in his war against Iran were to regroup and confront Iran again, Iranians would deliver a historic slap in their face"

Ahmadinejad said Iran had done everything it could to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful but the West, in the name of opposing nuclear weapons, was trying to thwart Iran's development.

"We have tried all legal, wise and logical ways to convince these corrupt and selfish powers," he said of the West.

While Ahmadinejad has repeatedly attacked the Security Council resolution, he has avoided any public comment on the results of the municipal elections of December 15.

The polls were seen as an electoral test of Ahmadinejad's presidency, and the success of his opponents suggested that voters want him to pay more attention to domestic issues rather than foreign policy - where he is fond of challenging the West by taking an inflexible line on the nuclear program and by calling for the destruction of Israel.

Some people in the crowd in Ahvaz on Tuesday tried to remind the president of the need to address domestic problems. State television showed a placard carried by one spectator that read: "Inflation, unemployment, insecurity, drug addiction have desiccated the tree of the revolution."

Inflation is officially at 12 percent but thought to be much higher, and an estimated 3 million people are unemployed.

Three bombings in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, killed a total of 23 people and wounded dozens more in January 2006, and June and October 2005.

In July, a court condemned to death five Iranian Arab separatists for the
blasts. An Iranian Arab insurgent group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, claimed responsibility for the January blast
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  1.   He shouldn`t be talking this way..but he is right 14:13  |  Khalid 02/01/07
  2.   So, what else iss new?! 14:20  |  BenAbuzaglo 02/01/07
  3.   Done everything it could 14:38  |  Clickfool 02/01/07
  4.   Zoht terefah ve-zoht nevelah 14:42  |  Yonatan 02/01/07
  5.   We will humiliate you 14:49  |  Michael 02/01/07
  6.   #1 Talmudic Israel 15:03  |  ChanahS 02/01/07
  7.   Re: We will humiliate you @5 15:08  |  JustWondering 02/01/07
  8.   Hey, Mahmoud, does the name "Saddam" ring a bell? 15:18  |  Asylum Aleikum 02/01/07
  9.   to Number 1 15:26  |  jon 02/01/07
  10.   Amedinejad must be bored 15:31  |  PS 02/01/07
  11.   YES, THEY DID HUMILIATE THE U.S. IN 15:35  |  Robert 02/01/07
  12.   But even complaining about... 15:54  |  Edith 02/01/07
  13.   Click, Fool 16:13  |  DAVID KAPLAN 02/01/07
  14.   Iran Vs Iraq 16:45  |  Mary 02/01/07
  15.   American Bases in the ME 16:48  |  SurprizedAmerican 02/01/07
  16.   Why Doesn`t Ahmadinejad Just Admit... 16:49  |  Yosemite Sam 02/01/07
  17.   Khalid and Clickfool 16:52  |  Yosemite Sam 02/01/07
  18.   Bob Marley would have something to say... 17:04  |  AE 02/01/07
  19.   difference 17:14  |  lola 02/01/07
  20.   # 1 17:21  |  mhung 02/01/07
  21.   Iran is winning...and they know it 17:33  |  S. 02/01/07
  22.   *1 17:56  |  AHMED 02/01/07
  23.   CARTER ALLOWED IT 18:23  |  TOBIA 02/01/07
  24.   Irans oil supply capability is dwindling each year 18:26  |  British academic 02/01/07
  25.   To Clickfool 18:27  |  Al 02/01/07
  26.   Amandinejad`s Quest 18:36  |  Ronnie Wolman 02/01/07
  27.   Irak was not the good target 19:10  |  jean marie 02/01/07
  28.   Iran to the West 19:27  |  Yosef 02/01/07
  29.   Iran Didn`t Humiliate The The U.S. 20:23  |  Yosemite Sam 02/01/07
  30.   Starting to sound desperate 20:29  |  Bimmer 02/01/07
  31.   OOOOOOOPPS!! 20:30  |  Blogowitz 02/01/07
  32.   15 YOU ARE RIGHT, BUT... 20:33  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 02/01/07
  33.   Not so fast, AE 21:00  |  Sam 02/01/07
  34.   #18 AE 22:49  |  Boycott 02/01/07
  35.   Liberman does not realize 23:14  |  Esther 02/01/07
  36.   ONE DAY AMADAMAN WILL ALSO DO THE 2M DROP 23:16  |  alan 02/01/07
  37.   Another own goal. Send Avigdor off the pitch! 23:32  |  Joseph 02/01/07
  38.   Ahmadinejad`s rant 00:16  |  JW 03/01/07
  39.   What A Fool. 00:17  |  Paulo 03/01/07
  40.   ISNT IT AGAINST THE U.N. CHARTER 00:18  |  SAM 03/01/07
  41.   #24 answered #18 01:28  |  mollio uk 03/01/07
  42.   NO its not 01:45  |  John 03/01/07
  43.   Great Persia 02:08  |  Alan 03/01/07
  44.   British academic 02:43  |  Guess who 03/01/07
  45.   and who need to be out after, the US or Russia, or 04:27  |  Simon Mohammed 03/01/07
  46.   barbarians 04:33  |  Leonardo 03/01/07
  47.   Simon Mohammed - Not really 05:19  |  Bruce 03/01/07
  48.   Tehren 05:21  |  Lynn 03/01/07
  49.   ISNT IT AGAINST THE U.N. CHARTER? 05:26  |  Bruce 03/01/07
  50.   #45 05:30  |  Lynn 03/01/07
  51.   For domestic release only 06:12  |  Gordon 03/01/07
  52.   Iran`s membership in the UN must be revoked !!! 06:34  |  Amotz 03/01/07
  53.   recent events 07:30  |  gabriel elias 03/01/07
  54.   Bimmer, well said 08:55  |  PS 03/01/07
  55.   Paulo 08:58  |  JG 03/01/07
  56.   #40 #52 "wiped off the map" 08:59  |  keith 03/01/07
  57.   Great Architecture, Carpets, & Caviar, But Lousy Religion! 09:29  |  Lavi 03/01/07
  58.   Ahmadinejad vs. Lieberman 09:37  |  Brigitte Meier 03/01/07
  59.   #56 What did he say,then,Keith? 09:37  |  Hastaroth 03/01/07
  60.   UN Membership 09:40  |  Henry Weil 03/01/07
  61.   Ahmadenier sanctions 09:58  |  Bill 03/01/07
  62.   #56 Keith: You Don`t Know Farsi, Amongst Other Things 10:44  |  Lavi 03/01/07
  63.   # 52 and what about a member state... 13:01  |  eric 03/01/07
  64.   difference-- addenda 13:43  |  rehovot 03/01/07
  65.   Lieberman soundbites 14:23  |  JJ 03/01/07
  66.   Alan, "All Radicals must be stopped" 00:58  |  Cyrus 04/01/07
  67.   Ahmadinejad Sanctions 04:04  |  Leila 04/01/07
  68.   To Lavi 04:12  |  Leila 04/01/07
  69.   Iran 03:50  |  Chuck 05/01/07
  70.   new racist government in Iran 16:44  |  benjamin ahwazi 21/11/07