Iran ready to talk on its nuclear program, but has conditions: president

Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran is in favor of dialogue over its nuclear program but has conditions, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"We say that Iran is in favor of dialogue (over its nuclear program), but we have conditions to talk with them (Western countries)," Ahmadinejad said addressing a crowd in Shahr-e Kord, the capital city of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari Province in southwestern Iran.

"We will announce our conditions soon," he was quoted as saying.

"They (powers) need to talk to Iran in a new atmosphere and they have no other way," he was quoted as saying by the semi- official ISNA news agency on Wednesday.

He called UN Security Council's last week sanction resolution as a "political game" and said "you (powers) made a move and now it is Iran's turn (to make a move)," he said without elaborating, according to Fars.

Last week, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear program.

"If they think (by these sanctions), they can show sticks to the Iranians, the Iranian nation will annihilate all these sticks, " said the Iranian president, according to ISNA.

Implying the obligations that the UN sanctions resolution against Iran puts on the countries, he said Iran "will preserve the right to take strong countermeasures against any government that, from any corner of the world, manages to violate even one iota of the Iranians' rights under the pretext of the (UN) resolution," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Source: Xinhua