Iran has shown a defiant attitude toward new U.S. sanctions imposed due to its suspicious nuclear program.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that the United States will lose out by adopting
sanctions against Iran.
"By these sanctions, they (the Americans) in fact sanction themselves," Ahmadinejad told a press
conference in Tehran.
"They are unhappy with Iran's boosting economic relations with others," he added.
According to the June 24 bill, any U.S. companies and citizens doing business with Iranian oil
refineries, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, or Iranian banks on the U.S. sanctions list would be punished.
Ahmadinejad said Iran can meet its oil and gas consumption with its own production.
He said Iran, with both oil and gas reserves ranking the second in the world, can lift its oil and gas production by 20 million to 30 million liters within one week, and halve its oil and gas consumption without harming economic development. Therefore, he said, Iran can be self-reliant on oil and gas production.
Ahmadinejad listed three preconditions for restarting talks on the Iranian nuclear issue: the parties should clarify their positions on Israeli nuclear weapons; the parties should pronounce their loyalty to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); the parties should make known
their intentions for the talks -- whether they are friends or enemies of Iran.