BERLIN, May 30 (UPI) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Europe will emerge as the "big loser" of the Iranian nuclear conflict for siding with the United States.
"If the Europeans side with Iran, it will be to our and to their benefit," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel, which hit newsstands Monday. "But if they are only against us, then they will take much damage. Our people are strong and determined. The Europeans are on their way to lose their standing in the Near East."
The United States and Europe believe Iran is secretly aiming to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran strongly denies.
Ahmadinejad said his country has had "excellent cooperation" with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.
"We have had more than 2,000 inspections of our plants, and the inspectors have obtained more than 1,000 pages of documentation from us," he said. "Their cameras are installed in our nuclear centers."
The IAEA, however, earlier this year referred the conflict to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions.
"The other side is: There are some countries that possess nuclear energy as well as nuclear weapons... And just those countries say they are worried that Iran strays off its path to peaceful nuclear research... those powers have no right to talk to us like that," he said.
Ahmadinejad said he was against nuclear proliferation, adding he would favor an agreement to disarm all nuclear powers.
He also contested the Holocaust and the political reality that has formed since the end of World War II.
"We are saying that if the Holocaust occurred, then Europe must draw the consequences, and that it is not Palestine that should pay the price for it," he said. "If it did not occur, then the Jews have to go back to where they came from."
