Iran Will Pursue Nuclear Program, New President Says

Iran will pursue a nuclear energy program that the U.S. opposes because it needs to generate electricity, said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking a day after he was announced winner of the country’s presidential election.

“We need this technology to produce energy,” Ahmadinejad, 48, said at his first press conference since winning 62 percent of the vote in the elections on June 24. “We need it for the development of our country and we shall carry on with it,” he told reporters in a live broadcast on television news stations, including the British Broadcasting Corp.

The election victory of Ahmadinejad gives Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s supporters absolute control of Iran, holder of the world’s second-largest oil and gas reserves, after they won a majority in parliament in February 2004. Ahmadinejad said dialogue with the U.S., which accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, would have to be based on “fairness and mutual respect.”
Bloomberg