(Deutsche Presse) - Iran will not be intimidated by either threats or sanctions by the United States, which will not change Tehran's course in the nuclear dispute, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Monday.

 

'Sanctions and threats will not intimidate us and especially not affect our national will in following our rights, especially our nuclear rights,' the spokesman said. Ghashghavi was referring to US plans to reportedly put sanctions on fuel exports to Iran.

 

'Sanctions and threats are history and have lost their efficiency,' the spokesman said, adding with a reference to Israel, 'These are just efforts by the Zionist lobby [in the US] to deviate the course of the new US administration.'

   

The Iranian oil ministry said the country would be able to cope with the US plan and cover the possible shortages within 48 hours. Iran welcomed the decision by the US administration to resume talks, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for changes promised by his US counterpart, Barack Obama, to be implemented.

 

Also Ahmadinejad's main challenger in the June 12 presidential elections, Mir-Hossein Mpoussavi, said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel that Obama's language was 'refreshingly different' from his predecessor George W Bush and, if the United States was serious, 'then why shouldn't we negotiate?

 

The United States and its western allies, continue to pressure the world's public opinion and the Iranian people to give up what is already a full grown industry, i.e. Iran's peaceful nuclear program. However, Iran is always quick to dismiss any possibilities of giving up on its legitimate rights.