Iran's power comes from the home-grown nature of its achievements and it, thus, is needless of atomic bombs, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, stressing that the world powers are at loggerheads with Iran not due to their nuclear differences with Tehran, but because of the indigenous nature of Iran's progress, Fars News Agency reported.
"As far as the nuclear issue is concerned, what they (the westerners) fear is Iran's ability and determination that drove us into this (nuclear) path," Ahmadinejad said, addressing at a ceremony held to inaugurate Iran's highest concrete dam, Karoun 4, in the Western province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari on Wednesday.
"We don't need to build (atomic) bombs. Bombs are for retarded people," the Iranian president noted, adding that Iran is at the peak of self-reliance.
The president further called for the further strengthening of the Iranian nation's resolve and self-confidence.
Iranian nuclear program has caused concern since 2003, when the IAEA became aware of its concealed activity. In late 2003, Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons and voluntarily announced about the suspension of uranium enrichment. However, it returned to this activity.
Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes of providing energy, but many other countries contend that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and last June the Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions against it, citing the proliferation risks of its nuclear programme and its continued failure to cooperate with the IAEA.