UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against “Zionist murderers” in a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday and vowed to resist American bullying and defend Iran’s right to nuclear power.

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In an address that opened with a long discourse on God, justice and morality, Ahmadinejad said a small number of “deceitful Zionists” were manipulating Americans and Europeans.

Ahmadinejad, who has said in the past Israel should be wiped off the map, said there was growing resistance in the world to the aggression of “bullying powers,” a phrase he used repeatedly to refer to the United States and its allies.

“Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters,” he said, referring to Israel.

“American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders,” Ahmadinejad said.

He repeatedly referred to what he described as Zionist control over international “financial and monetary centers,” a widely discredited accusation that is often associated with anti-Semitism.

The Iranian president reiterated that Tehran’s nuclear program was entirely peaceful and said Iran was cooperating fully with the United Nations atomic watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA said earlier this month that Iran was not cooperating enough with its inspectors.

“A few bullying powers have sought to put hurdles in the way of the peaceful nuclear activities of the Iranian nation by exerting political and economic pressures against Iran, and also through threatening and pressuring the IAEA,” Ahmadinejad said.

“The great Iranian people ... will resist the bullying, and has defended and will defend its rights,” Ahmadinejad said.

“The Iranian nation is for dialogue. But it has not accepted and will not accept illegal demands,” he said.

The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran suspend enrichment of uranium and imposed three rounds of sanctions on Tehran.

The United States is leading a drive for more sanctions over Iran’s continued defiance of the resolutions, though Russian opposition makes it unlikely new penalties would be approved anytime soon.

Iran says it is enriching uranium for nuclear power plants and has vowed to continue doing so.

Israel, which is believed to be the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East, views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was among several speakers earlier on Tuesday who called on Iran to act on the Security Council resolutions and cooperate more with the IAEA.