Tehran:
Iran's president sneered on Tuesday at Israel's presentation at the United Nations last week, calling the cartoon-style drawing of a bomb held up by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "primitive" and describing those who talk of war as "retarded".
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Mr Netanyahu's drawing of a red line to urge swifter international action against Iran's nuclear program was an intellectual insult to UN dignitaries.
"He drew a primitive prop which was more of an insult to the audience," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
"It represented their (Israel's) attitude. They consider themselves superior and regard the rest of the nations as nothing."
The Iranian President said the speech by Mr Netanyahu painted the Israeli Prime Minister as a warmonger whose insistence on a "red line, white line, black line" was childish.
"Why war? Whoever talks of war is retarded. Whoever talks of war is condemned. Suddenly their psychological war was undermined, they are now nervous," Ahmadinejad said.
"This is the level of this guy's (Netanyahu's) character. It appeared that his drawing was not good. He got it drawn by a machine. His drawing will get better if he practises more."
At his speech last week before the UN General Assembly, Mr Netanyahu flashed the diagram of a bomb with a lighted fuse to illustrate progress Iran has made in its nuclear program, saying the country was approaching a threshold Israel could not tolerate.
Mr Netanyahu's prop was quickly dubbed "Bibi's bomb" after his nickname.
Mr Ahmadinejad said efforts by other nations to adversely affect the Iranian economy had "managed to reduce oil sales just a bit", but were being counteracted by his government.
He said sanctions were purely being used as a "tool for a psychological war" as "everybody knows that foreign trade doesn't have a big share in Iran's economy".
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing Iranian denials of the Holocaust, its calls for Israel's destruction, its development of missiles capable of striking the Jewish state, and its support for hostile Arab militant groups.
When asked about Iran's proposal to halt enriching uranium up to 20 per cent, if it is provided with fuel for its research reactor, Mr Ahmadinejad said no one had agreed to the deal.
"We again announced that if you provide us with fuel, we will stop production (of uranium enriched to 20 percent). Until now no one has agreed to or announced that they will give us fuel. As soon as they give us fuel we will no longer need to have such costly forms of production," he said.
Uranium enriched up to 20 per cent, known as highly enriched uranium, can be described as "weapons-usable" but is also used in fast neutron reactors and the production of medical isotopes.
Israel and the US have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran has denied the charges, saying its programme is peaceful and geared toward generating electricity and medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.