Arash Aramesh

President Barack Obama’s remarks about the new US nuclear policy have angered Iranian officials. Obama said that the US was not going to use nuclear weapons to retaliate against other countries except Iran and North Korea.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, met with the leaders of Iran’s military Saturday and asked them to be prepared against all possible threats. Khamenei condemned the United States for making such threats against Iran and implied that the United State can never be trusted.

According to Fars news, a pro-government site with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the US president an “amateur” and ridiculed other American leaders by calling them “retarded.”

According to President.Ir, the official website of the President of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad added, “The Iranian people believe that nuclear weapons are against humanity.” He asserted, “We have said many times that we are not after nuclear weapons. Those who pursue nuclear weapons are political retards. No one can use nuclear weapons against another country and no one has the audacity to use them.”

Ahmadinejad warned Western statesmen that their behavior only makes the Iranian people more determined in achieving their goals and said, “I warn these unjust powers not to continue their wrong actions. They need to save their dignity and experience the taste of humanity by respecting others.”

Maj Gen Hassan Firouzabadi, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, ruled out the possibility of an attack against Iran by the United States, but he also said that if there is an attack “US soldiers will not leave the region alive.”

Today, more than 200 members of the Iranian parliament signed a petition asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to file an official suit against the United States and President Obama. These lawmakers believe that making such threats are criminal and must have legal consequences.

According to IRNA, the Islamic Republic’s News Agency, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that Iran will complain to the UN Security Council against remarks made by the US president. He condemned US rhetoric regarding Iran and said, “All IAEA reports have confirmed that Iran has not diverted from its nuclear program.”

Since April 10, the Iranian media, especially the pro-government and the state-owned media, have focused their efforts on reflecting the reactions of high-ranking officials to President Obama’s comments last week while playing down the important of the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, D.C. on Monday April 12 and Tuesday April 13 in order to address important nuclear issues facing the international community.