From The Asia Times
By Kimia Sanati

While Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has chosen to defy Western plans to deepen sanctions against his country for its contentious nuclear program, criticism is growing louder at home for exposing Iran to avoidable risks and hardship.

Ahead of Monday’s meeting in London of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany to consider punitive action against Tehran for ignoring a UN ultimatum to halt uranium enrichment, Ahmadinejad was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying: “Iran’s nuclear train is racing ahead, and it does not have any brake or reverse gear, because we have uninstalled and dropped them away.”

“They [the West] claim that they support dialogue and logic, but when they are about to lose the game they resort to military force. Yet they should know that even their weapons are of no efficiency today,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency.

Yet criticism in the local press and among observers of Ahmadinejad’s provocatively defiant stance that has led to the present situation surfaced over the weekend – this despite the establishment’s warnings that comment on the nuclear policy could compromise the nation’s security and would invite penalty.

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