TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president hit back Saturday at President Barack Obama’s accusation that his country had sought to hide its construction of a nuclear site, arguing that Iran reported the facility to the U.N. even earlier than required.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his government’s actions as the head of the U.N.’s nuclear monitoring agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, arrived Saturday to arrange an inspection of the uranium enrichment facility near Qom.
Ahmadinejad said in a speech Saturday that Iran voluntarily revealed the facility to the IAEA in a letter Sept. 21. He said that was one year earlier than necessary under the agency’s rules.
“The U.S. president made a big and historic mistake,” Iranian state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. “Later it became clear that (his) information was wrong and that we had no secrecy.”
White House spokesman Tom Vietor said the administration had no comment on Ahmadinejad’s remarks.
