TEHRAN — Iran is ready to retaliate if its vessels are searched and will postpone nuclear talks with major powers until late August in response to new international sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday.
“This is a punishment for them so that they will learn the protocol of talking to other nations,” Ahmadinejad said during a news conference, responding to a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions against the Islamic republic, which call for searches of suspect Iranian vessels.
“Anybody who insists on implementing this will regret this very harshly,” he said of such searches. “We reserve our right for retaliation and defending ourselves.”
