TEHRAN, Feb. 25 (ISNA) - President Ahmadinejad stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran had reached nuclear energy technology and its progress and development in this path was like a train which could not be stopped.

"Regretfully whenever the enemy sees that it can not do anything, it shows its weapons and power, but we believe that the era of weapons and atomic bombs has ended, because if it hadn't the U.S. would have reached victory in Iraq," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

"The era of atomic bombs has ended. If atomic bombs had any use the U.S. would have not been defeated in Iraq and President Bush party would have won the elections," he added.

"The enemy thinks that it can financially affect us in economics, but it is interesting to know that from the time they placed us under sanction our contacts have increased," he said, while noting that the enemy was only trying to magnify things through propaganda.

"In the past 28 years form the victory of the Islamic Revolution enemies have tried to pressure us through various means and methods such as war, human rights and democracy and today they have placed our peaceful nuclear program as an excuse," Ahmadinejad said.

"They do not want us to progress and develop. Today the nuclear program issue is not just a debate over an industry; it is the symbol of standing against colonization," he emphasized.

... Payvand News - 2/25/07 ... --