Iran’s President-Elect Rouhani Terms Sanctions “Cruel” Measure
Iran’s President-Elect Hassan Rouhani described the sanctions against Iran as a cruel and unjustified measure harming both sides while serving only Israel’s interests.
“Sanctions are a problem we are facing today and we all know that these sanctions are cruel,” Rouhani told a press conference here in Tehran on Monday.
“The Iranian nation has not done anything wrong to deserve sanctions, all its moves have been done legally and within the framework of the international regulations,” he added.
Rouhani described the use of sanctions and embargos as a worn-out measure belonging to the past, specially under the present conditions that the West is grappling with numerous economic problems.
“They (the westerners) themselves know that these sanctions are detrimental to the West. If these sanctions produce any benefit, it would be in Israel’s interest and have no other benefit for anyone else.
“Thus, sanctions cannot have a correct basis,” the Iranian president-elect reiterated.
“To decrease these sanctions, two measures will be adopted,” he said, and added, “First is moving on the path of increased transparency. Of course, our nuclear programs are fully transparent, yet we are ready to still increase this transparency to clarify it to the whole world that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions are completely within international frameworks.”
“In the second step, we will enhance mutual confidence (building) between Iran and other countries. That is to say, wherever trust is about to be impaired, we will strive to revive this trust.
“I do believe that mutual confidence as well as increased transparency in the framework of the international regulations and criteria is the way to end the sanctions,” he concluded.
Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed West’s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.
The Islamic Republic says that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA’s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.
