Iran's re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday his next government "would bring down the global arrogance," signaling a tougher approach toward the West after June's disputed election, Reuters reported.
"The Iranian nation elected somebody they (Iran's enemies) did not want. The Iranian nation's choice was their nightmare," the hardline president told a big crowd at the country's most prominent religious shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Ahmadinejad's fierce attack on Tehran's "enemies" is likely to further disappoint the United States and its allies, which are trying to engage the Islamic Republic in direct talks over its nuclear program.
Western leaders have criticized a crackdown on protests that followed the June 12 presidential election, which the defeated moderate candidate Mirhossein Mousavi says was rigged.
Ahmadinejad said enemies had tried to interfere and foment aggression in Iran. He said Tehran wanted "logic and negotiations" but that Western powers had insulted the nation and should apologize.
Iranian leaders often refer to the United States and its allies as the "global arrogance."
"As soon as the new government is established, with power and authority, ten times more than before, it will enter the global scene and will bring down the global arrogance," he said.
"They should wait as a new wave of revolutionary thinking ... from the Iranian nation is on the way and we will not allow the arrogant (powers) to even have one night of good sleep," Ahmadinejad said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, an ally of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of Ahmadinejad, has stepped down from the post after 12 years, Iranian media reported, without saying whether Gholamreza Aghazadeh's resignation was linked to the election.