Iran's President Talks Tough On Nukes

(AP)  The Iranian president on Saturday rejected Western pressure to freeze the country's nuclear program and issued a veiled threat to walk away from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In a speech of tens of thousands of Iranians massed in Azadi Square in the Iranian capital to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution which brought a Muslim theocracy to power, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said that the true Holocaust was happening now in the Palestinian territories and Iraq.

He has declared the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II was a "myth" and that Israel should be "wiped off the map," prompting worldwide outrage

But the focus of his speech was the building crisis surrounding the country's disputed nuclear program.

"The nuclear policy of the Islamic Republic so far has been peaceful. Until now, we have worked inside the agency (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) regulations.

"If we see you want to violate the right of the Iranian people by using those regulations (against us), you should know that the Iranian people will revise it's policies. You should do nothing that will lead to such a revision in our policy," said Ahmadinejad.

He did not specify what changes Tehran envisioned, but it was believed to be a threat to withdraw from the NPT and the IAEA.

"The West is hiding its ugly face behind international bodies, but these bodies have no reputation among nations. You have destroyed the reputation of the NPT," the Iranian president said.

Ahmadinjad has not relented in attacking Israel and recently a Tehran newspaper announced it was holding a contest for caricatures of the Holocaust.

"If you want to find the real Holocaust, you will find it in Palestine where Zionists kill Palestinians everyday. You will find it in Iraq," he said.

He also charged that what he termed "Zionists" were behind the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad which has prompted a series of global demonstrations by angry Muslims and attacks on Western embassies, primarily those of Scandinavian countries.

"I ask everybody in the world not to let a group of Zionists who failed in Palestine (referring to the recent Hamas victory in Palestinian elections) insult the prophet.

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