Iran's hard-line president on Tuesday challenged the authority of the U.N. Security Council, two days before the council's deadline demanding Tehran stop uranium enrichment. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said no one can prevent Iran from pursuing a peaceful nuclear program. Ahmadinejad also proposed having a televised debate with U.S. President George W. Bush on world issues. "The U.S. and Britain are the source of many tensions. At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them, there is no place to take complaints to," Ahmadinejad said during a press conference. "This (veto right) is the source of problems of the world. ... It is an insult to the dignity, independence, freedom and sovereignty of nations," he said.The U.N. Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend a key part of its nuclear program — the enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons. But Iran has refused any immediate suspension, calling the deadline as illegal. "The U.S. and Britain take whatever actions they are interested in but resist against the interests of nations," Ahmadinejad said.
The Iranian president also said Israel's creation is a "tale" and called the Jewish state a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East. "The Zionist regime has deprived the Palestinian nation and other nations of the region of a single day of peace. In the past 60 years, it has imposed tens of wars on the Palestinian nation and others," he said.