Iran not to retreat an iota from its rights

Tehran, May 12 (IANS) Iran will not retreat an iota from its rights under pressure of sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said.

"They (West) should know that this (Iranian) nation will not retreat even an iota from its inalienable rights," Xinhua quoted Ahmadinejad as saying while referring to the successive Western sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

Earlier in the month, US President Barack Obama ordered the treasury department to target foreign entities and individuals who evade the US sanctions against Iran.

In the latest step, the US has urged India to further reduce its oil imports from sanctions-hit Iran.

Iran is under substantive sanction pressures, especially on its oil industry and oil exports, by the West.

Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that any new sanctions against Iran by the West will "affect the spirit" of next month's nuclear talks.

The last round of nuclear talks between Iran and the UN Security Council's five permanent members -- the US, Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany (P5+1) concluded in Turkey's Istanbul in April, with all sides describing the talks as positive. They agreed to meet again in the Iraqi capital May 23.