At a press conference today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his nation considers the prospect of developing nuclear weapons to be “politically retarded,” and that Iran’s nuclear program is directly only at civilian applications.

Ahmadinejad said that the nation would not consider any proposal to “freeze” its civilian nuclear program, and that the talks “will only be in the framework of cooperation for managing global issues and nothing else.” He said the nuclear issue was “finished.” There were reports that the West was offering to halt adding further sanctions against Iran in return for a complete halt to their program.

The Iranian government has repeatedly ruled out pursuing atomic weapons and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly certified that none of Iran’s low-enriched uranium is being diverted to any non-civilian use. Still, this weekend Admiral Michael Mullen alleged that Iran was pursuing such weapons, though he did concede that he hadn’t seen any actual reports detailing such a program.

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