US must drop “cowboy” attitude: Iran President

The United States must drop its "cowboy" attitude if it wants to hold dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday as news surfaced that Tehran is is using a bank in Germany to beat sanctions.

"We are for negotiations, but to do so you have to sit down like a good boy," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the United States, in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"They adopt a resolution to force a dialogue, but this cowboy logic has no place in Iran."

World powers led by the U.S. voted for new U.N. sanctions against Iran on June 9 in a bid to force it to stop its nuclear program which they suspect is aimed at making weapons. Iran denies its atomic drive has military aims.

Following up on the U.N. sanctions, U.S. President Barack Obama on July 1 imposed Washington's toughest-ever unilateral punitive measures against Iran.

Ahmadinejad said Washington's real concern was not that Iran may make an atom bomb but that Tehran is fast rising as a regional power.

Addressing industrialists in northern Iran Monday, the Iranian leader says the sanctions will only help Iran, forcing it toward achieving greater economic self-sufficiency.

"They say we have intelligence that Iranians will most likely build one atomic bomb. Well, this is a lie, but let's say it is true. How many atomic bombs do you have?" the hardliner said in his speech,

"The Americans themselves say 5,000 plus... Is someone who has 5,000 fourth and fifth generation atomic bombs, with very advanced launchers, afraid of one bomb? They are not afraid of one, not of a hundred, not of a thousand (bombs). They are afraid of the collective awakening of the Iranian soul.

We are for negotiations, but to do so you have to sit down like a good boy

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Will not back away

Displaying his trademark defiance, Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran would not back away from its uranium enrichment program.

Washington, he charged, knew full well that Iran is "not after an atomic bomb," despite its claims to the contrary.

"You sanction our banks and some products and think that we will back down and hand over the key to the Iranian nation," he said.

Addressing industrialists in northern Iran Monday, the Iranian leader says the sanctions will only help Iran, forcing it toward achieving greater economic self-sufficiency.

"They should know that they will take their dream of forcing down the Iranian nation to their graves. Our nation is one family... we may have different views, but we are one body against you."

World powers, immediately after the U.N. sanctions measure was passed, called for dialogue with Iran as part of its dual track strategy of imposing punitive measures and at the same time offering to hold talks.

But Ahmadinejad has ordered a freeze in talks at least until end of August as a "penalty" against world powers for imposing sanctions on Tehran.

Small bank in Germany

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that a small Iranian-owned bank in Germany has been used by Iran's government to go around international economic sanctions and do business on behalf of blacklisted organizations,

Citing unnamed Western officials, the newspaper said the bank in question is the European-Iranian Trade Bank AG (EIH).

According to the report, the financial institution has done over a billion dollars of business for Iranian companies associated with Iran's military and ballistic missile procurement programs, including firms sanctioned by the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.

Contacted by AFP, the bank declined to comment on the allegations.

The new U.N. measures against Iran authorize states to conduct high-seas inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items to Iran and add 40 entities to a list of people and groups subject to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. administration added Iranian individuals and firms to a blacklist as part of U.S. and European efforts to tighten the screws on Iran.

The new U.S. sanctions target insurance companies, oil firms and shipping lines linked to Iran's nuclear or missile programs as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Iran's defense minister Ahmad Vahidi.

The Journal said that EIH's business partners include units of Iran's Defense Industries Organization, the Aerospace Industries Organization and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

These companies are believed to be involved in the development of Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

In 2009, EIH appears to have been involved in a broad sanctions-evasion scheme, conducting transactions on behalf of Iran's Bank Sepah that has been sanctioned by the United Nations, Europe and the United States for facilitating Iran's weapons trade and proliferation activities, the paper said.

EIH was founded by a group of Iranian merchants in Hamburg in 1971, according to The Journal. It operates openly under the supervision of German bank regulators, but the U.S. Department of Treasury blacklisted it for alleged illicit business with Iran, the report note.

They should know that they will take their dream of forcing down the Iranian nation to their graves. Our nation is one family... we may have different views, but we are one body against you

Ahmadinejad