Ahmadinejad: 'This is not nice'
Posted: Friday, September 25, 2009 4:30 PM by Daily Nightly Editor
Filed Under:
Ann Curry
By Ann Curry, NBC News anchor
Editor's note: The following are notes from today's press conference with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.
AC: President Obama said, "The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peace program." How do you explain the size and configuration of this facility?
Ahmadinejad: "I don't think Mr. Obama is a nuclear expert. We have to leave it to the IAEA."
AC: In terms of the size of the U.S. facility, how about the size of that?
Ahmadinejad: "I haven't hear Mr. Obama say this. I have to take a look and think about it."
On Obama's promise of change:
Ahmadinejad:"Previous administrations did not respect other governments...but I think..if change is made, things will become much better...Good relations are in everyone's best interest."
Asked to respond to Israel's Netanyahu's showing of a map of Auchwitz before the UN General Assembly:
Ahmadinejad: "We principally don't recognize them."
Asked if Iran has any other nuclear facilities that it has not revealed.
Ahmadinejad: (Pause) "We are operating.. within the framework of the IAEA. There are rules and regulations. We follow the law...We did something well beyond what was required....This is a very ordinary facility and is only in its beginning stages. It is not a secret facility."
Ahmadinejad: (Directing his comments to Obama) "What business of it for you to tell us what do do? You are just another member state like any other state."
"This is a mistake (referring to comments from Obama, Sarkozy, Brown). They will be sorry."
Ahmadinejad also said, this is not how you enter negotiations, "this is not nice."
Ahmadinejad says he is "surprised" by President Obama's statements today.
He said under IAEA rules, you must notify the world six months before you intend to begin using the facility. He said he notified IAEA ahead of time, adding "We still have another year left."
"What we did was completely legal," he said. "The IAEA will come and take a look, this is nothing new."
