SALON

Monday, Nov 12, 2012 10:58 PM UTC

Iran VP: We will break Obama’s “grasping hands”

Reza Rahimi also said Iran will overcome U.S.-led sanctions

By

Topics: Middle East, Barack Obama, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Big story you missed, Sanctions,

Iran VP: We will break Obama's

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s vice president said Monday that Tehran will break the `grasping hands’ of newly re-elected President Barack Obama, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Mohammad Reza Rahimi also said Iran will overcome U.S.-led sanctions against the country.

“We will break grasping hands of Obama and we will be successful in bypassing the sanctions,” Rahimi was quoted as saying during a research and scientific exhibition at Tehran University.

Iranian officials dismiss the impact of last week’s U.S. elections, suggesting it will have little impact on Washington’s Iran policy. On Thursday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mocked the cost of campaigning, dubbing the vote a “battleground for capitalists”

Rahimi is known for hardline anti-Western statements. In June, he blamed global drug use on the teachings of Jewish holy texts.

The sanctions have hit Iran’s economy hard in the past months. They are imposed over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at weapons development. Iran denies the charge, saying its program is for peaceful purposes like power generation and cancer treatment.

Ahmadinejad and allies like Rahimi are anxious to play up Iran’s confrontation with the West. Conservatives who used to back him, but who turned against him last year over his perceived challenge to the clerical establishment, say he has mismanaged the economy and contributed to the country’s woes.

Iran’s parliament plans to question Ahmadinejad over the economy, and in the past has accused Rahimi of misusing public funds. The vice president denies the allegations.

More Associated Press.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 3 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations