Article Posted on : - Aug 15, 2011

MOSCOW (PTI): Describing nuclear arms as "inhuman weapons" of the past century, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday said his country will never seek atomic arsenal which is a waste of money.

"Never, never. We do not want nuclear weapons. We do not seek nuclear weapons. This is an inhuman weapon," Ahmadinejad said in an interview to English language Russia Today channel.

Responding to a question whether Iran could acquire a nuclear deterrent, at some point in the future, the Iranian leader declared, "Because of our beliefs we are against that.

Firstly, our religion says it is prohibited. We are religious people. Secondly, nuclear weapons have no capability today.

If any country tries to build a nuclear bomb, they in fact waste their money and resources and they create great danger for themselves."

In his interview on the eve of Moscow's hectic diplomatic efforts to broker a deal between Tehran and the West over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme, Ahmadinejad said he was equally concerned about the nuclear programmes of many countries.

"We don't like it either that some countries have nuclear weapons. If we are going to be against nuclear weapons we must rise in opposition to current nuclear arsenals. There are now a lot of atomic arsenals in Belgium, Italy, in Germany, Japan.

This places serious jeopardy against the international community", he said.

According to local media reports Secretary of Russia's National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev is reaching Tehran tomorrow on a two day visit for talks with Ahmadinejad, his Iranian counterpart Said Jalili and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

Patrushev's Tehran visit is to be followed by Salehi's Moscow visit on August 16-17 for talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"All nuclear activities in Iran are monitored by the IAEA. There have been no documents against Iran from the Agency. It's just a claim by the US that we are after nuclear weapon. But they have no evidence that Iran is diverting resources for that purpose, " Ahmadinejad stressed.

He said despite having huge nuclear stockpiles America could not win in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Could the nuclear weapons help the Israelis to gain victory in Lebanon and Gaza? Could nuclear weapons help the former Soviet Union from collapse? Nuclear weapons are the weapons of the previous century," the Iranian leader asked.

Ahmadinejad declared that Tehran pursues the policy with the goal "Nuclear energy for all and Nuclear weapons for none."