国际英语新闻：Ahmadinejad: West defeated, keen to resume ties

TEHRAN, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that the defeated Western countries attempt to establish ties with Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"The defeated Western powers have sent messages to Iran's government, announcing their readiness to establish amicable ties with the Iranian people," the report quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

    "By their clear interference in Iran's domestic affairs, the big powers thought they could damage the Islamic Republic system and the Iranian people," said Ahmadinejad.

    "The Iranian nation is interested in establishing friendly relations (with Western countries) based on justice... and the other side should be responsible for its acts," he added without referring to the details of West's gestures of establishing amicable ties with Iran.

    Tehran says that the West irresponsibly interfered in Iran's internal affairs in the post-election unrest in an attempt to implement a "velvet coup" against the country's religious system.

    The United States and most of the European countries have urged Iranian officials not to crack down on the protestors after Iran's June 12 presidential election.

    Earlier, spokesmen for U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said respectively their leaders would not congratulate the Iranian president.

    "No one is waiting for the congratulatory messages from the Western leaders," Ahmadinejad responded during his swearing-in ceremony.

    Last week, Ahmadinejad said that his government will severely punish those bullying powers, which fanned the flames of Iran's post-election unrest.