Commander Terms Anti-Iran Sanctions Counterproductive

Lieutenant Commander of Basij (volunteer) Forces Brigadier General Ali Fazli played down the power and the impacts of the western sanctions and restrictions on Iran, and said the pressures exerted on the Iranians have actually backfired as they have stimulated the country’s scientific progress.

“Despite all the sanctions, our youths handled the Sacred Defense (Iraqi imposed war on Iran in 1980s) and also the country managed its affairs very well in scientific and other fields during the last 33 years (since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979),” Fazli said.

“We will present new innovations, creativities and inventions soon in future, which could not develop if there were no sanctions,” the commander added.

Meantime, Fazli said that anti-Iran sanctions are not new for the Iranian nation.

In similar remarks on Sunday, Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi praised Iran’s unbelievably fast progress in various areas of science and technology, and said the country has attained the goals of its plans for scientific progress 13 years ahead of the targeted date envisioned in the country’s 20-year outlook plan.

“Fortunately, Iran has managed to rank first in science in the region 13 years ahead of the (20-year) Outlook Plan (for development),” Rahimi said in a ceremony here in Tehran on Sunday.

Iran has made huge achievements in various fields of science and technology, from nuclear knowledge to stem cells and Nano technology, in the last two decades.

Rahimi pointed to the western sanctions against Iran, and noted, “The oppressive powers have imposed the harshest sanctions against the Iranian nation not because of the acquisition of the nuclear knowledge, but for its efforts towards progress and development.”

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 the West’s demand as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.