Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said his country's nuclear program is for the promotion of humanitarian causes and the economic growth of Iran, Xinhua reported.
Ahmadinejad, who spoke against the backdrop of the recent sanction on Iran by the UN over its nuclear program, told reporters in Abuja on Thursday that "our country is a peaceful one and our nuclear program is for peace and development."
The sanction would not have any effect on Iran's nuclear program and relations with other countries, he said.
"Sanction is a defeated stand, it is wrong and should be condemned, especially at a time when the world is promoting free trade and peaceful co-existence," Ahmadinejad told reporters.
He emphasized the importance of nuclear technology in power generation, pointing out that it is cheaper to develop nuclear for energy purposes than to use fossil fuel to power electricity.
He said with the energy crisis facing Nigeria, nuclear technology for power supply was a better and cheaper alternative to hydro and gas sources.
Ahmadinajad said Iran was being stereotyped over its nuclear program and pointed out that the U.S. also has nuclear bomb and their logic is that of force but we have the logic of humanitarian use.
He said while the U.S. possessed nuclear weapons, it claimed it was dangerous for other countries to do the same.
He said Iran was a peaceful nation that totally condemned injustice and stressed the need for friendly dialogue rather than the use of force to address the issues.
"Dialogue for peace is different from dialogue for hostility, dialogue is the way out, the UN sanction was issued at the time that we were thinking of dialogue," he told reporters.
"In our talks they wanted to weaken our position despite the several concessions given to them," he said.
He called for the relocation of the UN headquarters from New York to a more liberal political zone, saying that its location in the U.S. was hampering it from acting independently.
"The U.S. has continued to impose directives on other nations because the UN is in New York, if you don't have American visa, you cannot go to the UN, so it should be situated in a free economic and political zone so that it can operate well," he stressed.
The Iranian president said that the relationship between his country and Nigeria was cordial and described it as brotherly.
He expressed his country's commitment to foster bilateral relations in the area of culture and education with Nigeria.
Ahmadinajad refuted claims that Iran was an emerging regional power in the Middle East but said that the Persian Gulf countries were all brothers with relationships based on love and peace.
The president said Iran currently conducted business transactions with its local currency instead of the dollar but maintained that the pricing was still in line with the international prices denominated in dollars.
According to him, the reason for adopting the Iranian currency for business was to forestall the devaluation of the local currency by the dollar, among other issues.
Ahmadinajad was in Nigeria for the 13th D-8 Summit with other heads of state and governments of the member countries.
The D-8 commission, established in 1997, comprises developing countries, namely Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran and Pakistan.
The union is aimed at promoting economic growth and development among member countries. Nigeria on July 4 assumed the chairmanship of the Commission for two years.