Iranian president describes Bush as evil

The Iranian president today described US President George Bush as “evil”, adding that justice requires that Iran face down US arrogance, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a group of clerics, “the evil president of the US visited Indonesia and you saw how people of Indonesia opposed the thoughts of this person.”

“We will first have to break the horn of the big head so that justice can be done,” said Ahmadinejad, referring to US-led Western pressure over his country’s disputed nuclear programme. To “break the horn of the big head” is a Fares expression for blunting arrogant behaviour.

“Some bullying countries impose their illegal demands on independent and free countries while enjoying the support of some international organisations, which they founded for defending their own interests,” said Ahmadinejad, lashing out at the US and the United Nations, where Security Council members have deliberated imposing punitive measures on Iran for its nuclear programme.

The Iranian president’s launched his latest tirade against the United States as Iran’s request for assistance to build a heavy water reactor appeared that it would be rejected.

Diplomats at a 35-nation meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog agency on Tuesday said that many of Tehran’s allies favoured denying the request.

Ahmadinejad predicted that opponents of the program would fail to force Iran to abandon it. “Enemies express scattered words, they pose and humiliate but surely they will not go far.”

He also claimed that Iran was close to reaching the “peak of peaceful nuclear technology.”

In October, Iran announced it had expanded its capacity to enrich uranium, which can be used to produce electricity for a nuclear reactor or to make an atomic bomb. It began injecting gas into a second cascade of 164 centrifuges.

Iran says it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by year’s end, but it would take 54,000 centrifuges to fuel a reactor.

Iran claims its nuclear activities have peaceful goals, but the US and several of its Western allies believe otherwise because of the lack of transparency surrounding the program.