Sometimes, you just have to grin and bear it:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran hailed the American intelligence assessment that concluded his country was not developing nuclear weapons today, calling it a big victory and saying it was a result of Iran’s resistance to international pressure.

“This report tried to extract America from its impasse but it also is a declaration of the Iranian people’s victory against the great powers,”

Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a rally in the western province of Illam today, the ISNA student news agency reported. “With the help of God, our people have resisted, are resisting and will resist until the end,” he said, referring to Western efforts to make Iran stop enriching uranium to make nuclear fuel.

“They are disappointed that they cannot make you compromise even an iota,” he added.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said that the report showed that the Bush administration had admitted to its mistake in misjudging Iran’s nuclear program, which Iran has consistently maintained is for power production, not weapons.

“But their attitude does not allow them to admit their mistake and so they have to covey it in other words,” he said. “We tell them it is all right, and it is enough that you are confessing to your mistakes,” he added.

In Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said today that there was no evidence that Iran had ever pursued a nuclear weapons program. “Data that we have seen don’t allow to say with certainty that Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons program,” Mr. Lavrov said, The A.P. reported.

“We will assess the situation regarding a new U.N. Security Council resolution taking into account all these facts, including the U.S. confirmation that it has no information about the existence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran,” he said.