TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC News on Wednesday that his country was justified in barring further visits by U.N. atomic inspectors and challenged other nations to fully disclose their nuclear activities.
He also rebuffed the threat of new sanctions: “Our nation does not need the United States whatsoever,” he told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell in Tehran. “Even if the U.S. administration increases the sanctions and — 100 times more, and even the Europeans join the United States to impose heavier sanctions, we in Iran are in a position to meet our own requirements.”
Iran has already allowed the inspectors several visits and other western nuclear powers should allow the same kind of access to their facilities, Ahmadinejad said in a wide-ranging exclusive interview that included comments on the recent release of American Sarah Shourd from a Tehran prison. “We have gone beyond the law, and we have cooperated with them,” he said.