WASHINGTON, May 5, (Agencies): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday of seeking to provoke a “clash” with Tehran over its nuclear program.
“Mrs Clinton is interested in speedily moving relations with Iran to the point of a clash,” Ahmadinejad told ABC television in an interview, saying she was “constantly taking measures” against his government.
“Both the positions and the actions that Mrs. Clinton is taking violates the rights of Iran over the nuclear issue. It’s quite clear and it doesn’t need explanation.”
Ahmadinejad went on to say he felt Clinton “opposed” his country, while US President Barack Obama did not.
“Based on the information we possess, Mr Obama does not have such an opinion, but there’s a lot of pressure going around,” the Iranian leader told ABC.
Ahmadinejad made even stronger comments earlier this week, calling Clinton “an enemy” of Tehran.
“Mrs. Clinton is an enemy of Iran — it’s clear from the position she takes,” he told the PBS television network in an interview recorded on May 3.
Ahmadinejad said Clinton had “always threatened Iran” and tried to get the UN nuclear watchdog to take measures against Tehran even though there was no evidence of wrongdoing on the Islamic republic’s behalf.
Ahmadinejad is in the United States this week to attend a United Nations nuclear conference, even as Washington and its allies try to rally support for new UN sanctions against Tehran over its suspect nuclear activities.
Iran insists it is developing peaceful nuclear power, but the United States and its allies say Tehran is concealing its real intention to acquire an atomic weapon.
Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday his country would “definitely continue” its nuclear program despite Israeli threats of military action.
“Iran will definitely continue its path. You should not even doubt that we will continue our path. We’ll definitely continue our path,” Ahmadinejad said.
Asking if that meant Iran was playing with fire in light of Israel’s threat of a possible military strike, Ahmadinejad said it was not. “They’re not a factor, in our defense doctrine, we don’t even count them.”
Show
Iran on Wednesday kicked off new war games and military maneuvers in the strategic  Gulf waters, the country’s second military show of force in less than a month.
The exercises reflect Iran’s desire to flex its military muscle at a time of a deepening standoff with the West over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program. The war games, held annually since 2006, also act as a warning, should US or Israel consider a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The new maneuvers, dubbed “Velayat 89,” are to last eight days in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman and cover about 97,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers) of Iranian territorial waters, reported state TV.
In late April, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard held five-day maneuvers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s leaders have in the past said that if attacked, the country would respond by shutting off the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Gulf through which around 40 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies passes, as well as by attacking American bases in the Gulf.
Navy chief Adm. Habibollah Sayyari was quoted by the TV as saying Wednesday that Iran’s Navy, backed by the air force, will “show its might” in the latest exercise.
The exercise comes as the Obama administration is lobbying hard at the U.N. Security Council for tougher punishment of Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce either a warhead or fuel for a nuclear reactor.
Skeptical
The United States said Tuesday it was growing “increasingly skeptical” that dialogue will end the nuclear standoff with Iran even as Brazil, Turkey and other countries pursued mediation efforts.
“We do recognize the value and importance of a variety of countries engaging Iran,” State Department Philip Crowley told reporters.
“There is a two-track process here, engagement and pressure, and the foreign minister told the secretary that Brazil continues to see... what can be achieved on this engagement process,” Crowley said.
He was alluding to the talks Hillary Clinton had Monday with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim on the sidelines of the ongoing nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference in New York.
“As the secretary said yesterday, I think we’re increasingly skeptical that the Iranians are going to change their course absent... a real significant, powerful statement by the international community,” the spokesman said.
But Crowley stressed that “we hope that these efforts by Turkey, Brazil and others might be successful.”
“I think we are all sending the same message: that Iran has to answer the questions that the international community has,” Crowley said.
“It needs to respond in a formal and meaningful way to the offer that was put on the table last fall. There may still be a difference of opinion as to where we are in this process,” he said.
Western powers suspect Tehran is using uranium enrichment as a cover to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its sole ambition is to develop peaceful nuclear power.
Last October the United Nations drafted a deal to supply nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor by shipping out Iran’s low-enriched uranium in return for higher-grade nuclear fuel produced by Russia and France, but the deal has hit a deadlock.
The United States is spearheading a push for tougher sanctions in the 15-member UN Security Council against Iran for its refusal to halt enrichment. Resisting the drive are China, along with Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon.
Approved
Ahmadinejad has approved a Brazilian plan aimed at breaking the impasse over a UN-drafted nuclear fuel swap deal for Tehran, his website said on Wednesday.
World powers and Iran have been at loggerheads for months over the deal, which envisages supplying nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor in exchange for low-enriched uranium from Iran.
The deal stalled after Iran insisted the two materials be exchanged simultaneously within its borders — a condition rejected by world powers who accuse Iran of masking a weapons drive under the guise of what Tehran says is a purely civilian atomic programme.
In April Amorim said during a visit to Tehran that his country could “examine” hosting the fuel swap if requested by Iran.
He also said that Brazil could act as a “political guarantor” for the deal.
According to the website president.ir, Ahmadinejad discussed a Brazilian proposal in a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday.
“The main issue of talks between Ahmadinejad and Chavez was the Brazilian president’s proposal regarding the nuclear fuel swap and Ahmadinejad declared his basic approval to this proposal.”
Request
Meanwhile, A French court on Wednesday turned down a US request to extradite an Iranian engineer accused of buying electronic parts and exporting them illegally to Iran for use by the military.
The decision to release Majid Kakavand capped more than a year of legal wrangling in a case that had broad diplomatic implications as France pressed for the release of a French academic held in Tehran.
The Paris appeals court, which has the authority to rule on extradition requests, found that “there are no grounds to favourably receive this extradition request from the United States.”
Kakavand, who was arrested at Paris airport on March 20 last year following a holiday in France, said he planned to fly home as soon as possible and return to his “normal life”.
“The Americans destroyed my life and my personality and made a very bad image of me and now everybody can understand that it was not true,” the 37-year-old engineer told AFP after the ruling.
“With these baseless accusations, the Americans tried to mislead the French judiciary system.”
 An Iranian official confirmed on Wednesday that the top U.N. human rights official had been invited to make a rare visit to the Islamic Republic, the IRNA news agency reported.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who expressed concern about a crackdown on dissent in Iran after last year’s disputed election, last month said she would pay a visit to the country next year.
There was no immediate comment from Iran, which regularly dismisses international criticism over its human rights record, on her April 24 statement in Abu Dhabi.
But IRNA said Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary-general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, raised the issue in a meeting with the Swiss ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday.
IRNA said Larijani confirmed that Iran had extended an invitation to Pillay and was ready for her to make a visit.