Iran to stand up to world "bullies"

Iran's President says the Islamic Republic is more powerful than ever before and will continue to stand up to world "bullies".

"Benefiting from all nuclear potential is the right of the Iranian people so I am standing firm on Iran's nuclear issue," said Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Saturday while addressing a large crowd in Baft, a city located in the southern province of Kerman.

Ahmadinejad said “enemies” had “plotted against Iran” for 28 years but that “God” had always helped the Iranian nation in countering those schemes, IRNA reported.

He went on to say today's problem stem from a “few arrogant and selfish people” who are filled with hatred, “plunder, aggression, and lies”, and who occupy land that does not belong to them, in an apparent reference to Palestinian territories and the US-led occupation of Iraq. Those forces, Ahmadinejad suggested, had “strayed from the thinking path of the prophets of God.”