President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday dismissed the threat of new international sanctions, saying any UN resolution punishing Iran for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment “won’t be worth a cent.”
The United States has said that it and its allies plan to move ahead in the coming weeks with putting forward a Security Council resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Iran has been making a diplomatic push with council members to try to water down support.
In a speech before a crowd of supporters in the central city of Yasouj, Mr Ahmadinejad warned council members, “if you want to speak with the language of coercion ... your resolutions won’t be worth a cent.”
“In the near future, you will see that the United States’ satanic, evil and inhuman domination (of the world) will be eliminated,” he said.
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and the United Nations has demanded Tehran halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce either nuclear fuel or a warhead.
Iran says its programme is peaceful and that it has a right to pursue enrichment to power reactors to generate electricity.
The UN has already imposed three rounds of financial sanctions on Iran over its refusal.