Leaders of Iran, U.S. Jostle with Competing Messages

The leaders of Iran and the United States competed on Tuesday with sharply worded messages for the start of the Iranian new year that highlighted global tensions over Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned in a speech broadcast live on state television: "We have said that we do not have atomic weapons and we will not build any.

"But if there is any attack by the enemies, whether it be United States or the Zionist regime (Israel), we will attack them at the same level as they attack us."

He claimed the real reason for the hostility of Western governments was that they wanted to wield control over Iran's vast oil and gas reserves.

"We will not allow them to do so, and they will remain our enemies," he said.

"Those who think, if we yield on the nuclear issue, then U.S. hostility towards us will decrease, they are wrong. Their case (the U.S. case) against us is not the nuclear program nor is it human rights. It is that the Islamic Republic of Iran is standing against them," he said.

Simultaneously, U.S. President Barack Obama issued his own video message via YouTube, acknowledging the "continued tension between our two countries" -- and vowing to break Tehran's sophisticated internet censorship so Iranians can "access the information that they want."

On top of U.S. sanctions already imposed, Obama said Washington is encouraging "American businesses to provide software and services into Iran that will make it easier for the Iranian people to use the Internet."

The high-level jostling for Iranians' attention came on Nowruz, the first day of the Iranian new year that occurs with the transition to spring and which traditionally represents a period of renewal.

Iran, in a symbolic gesture underlining its readiness to counter any military threat, fired a shell from its flagship destroyer to mark the precise beginning of the new year.

Khamenei, in the first of two speeches to the Iranian people, declared the next 12 months to be a year of "domestic production and the support of Iranian investment and labor."

He cast that as a measure of defiance against U.S. and EU sanctions that are weighing on Iran's economy, which has long been struggling with high inflation and unemployment.

If Iran boosts its economy, Khamenei said, "the enemy (the West) will despair and its efforts to plot and conspire against us will end."

He said Iran had, in the previous 12 months, forged ahead in nuclear research and many other fields "despite all the animosity, all the propaganda, all the hostile attacks and ill-wishes" of the West.

Israel, he asserted, was isolated by the uprisings in the Arab world that have seen pro-U.S. regimes toppled and replaced by more Islamist administrations.

In his second, longer speech from the northeastern city of Mashhad, Khamenei said Iran had a divine duty to strike back at any aggressors.

He also said that Iran's oil wealth -- which is being targeted by U.S. and EU sanctions -- would eventually allow the Islamic republic to prevail over its enemies.

"When the day comes that they cannot obtain any more oil and gas, that will be the day they will have to make concessions, and it will be catastrophic for them," he said.

Obama's pre-recorded message -- carried in English, Farsi and Arabic on YouTube -- ignored Khamenei and spoke directly to the Iranian people.

He said their government could end its international isolation if it took a "responsible path" on its nuclear program.

He also accused Iran's leaders of imposing an "electronic curtain" of censorship through its aggressive filtering of the Internet, jamming of foreign television and radio broadcasts, and monitoring of computers and cellphones.

He vowed to pierce through that "curtain" with new U.S. software and through social media such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and using browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Obama also highlighted a "Virtual U.S. Embassy" online that was blocked in Iran hours after it was launched in early December. A similar British initiative launched last week was also blocked.

Iran and the United States have no diplomatic relations. Washington has repeatedly urged Iran's clerical regime to improve its record on human rights, including treatment of political critics and religious minorities.

Iran last month agreed to revive talks between it and the P5+1 group of powers -- the five U.N. Security Council permanent members plus Germany -- but as yet no date or venue for the negotiations has been announced.

The previous round of Iran-P5+1 talks collapsed in Istanbul in January last year.