Iran greets New Year with cannon fire

IRAN: Iran ushered in its Persian New Year on Tuesday with a symbolic cannon blast from its flagship destroyer, and speeches from leaders vowing to fix the country’s economy.

The shell shot from the warship Jamaran and the speeches, broadcast on state television, underlined the defiance of Iran as it confronts the West in a hardening showdown over its nuclear programme.

If Iran boosts its economy, “the enemy (the West) will despair and its efforts to plot and conspire against us will end,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

The previous 12 months, he said, saw a lot of events in the Middle East, such as the fall of Arab dictators and rise of Islamic governments.

“That turned out to favour the Iranian nation” and “dealt many problems to the West,” he asserted. “The number one enemy to Iran and the Islamic world, the Zionist regime (Israel), is surrounded,” Khamenei added.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking separately, said his government was working to right the Iranian economy by increasing gross domestic production and investment.

“My government stands by all Iranians, in good times and in bad,” he said.

Iran’s calendar year runs from mid-March to mid-March. The new year -- Nowrouz in Farsi -- marks the transition from winter to spring.

AFP