Senior Cleric Urges Iranian Nation’s Unity against Economic Pressures

Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani stressed that sanctions and pressures cannot force the Iranian nation to surrender, and called for unity and solidarity to overcome sanctions and pressures.

Addressing worshippers at Eid al-Adha prayers on Friday here in Tehran, Ayatollah Emami-Kashani said the West will fail in its attempts to bring the Islamic Republic to its knees through sanctions.

“The enemy should not think that it can bring our country to its knees through sanctions,” Ayatollah Emami Kashani reiterated.

He said that Iran can overcome sanctions and economic problems through unity and solidarity.

His remarks came days after the EU foreign ministers agreed on a new round of sanctions against Iran.

Iran blasted the sanctions as a move violating the principles of human rights, and said Iran will protest against embargos through legal channels.

Earlier this month, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei strongly rejected the West’s claims that the growing pressures on Iran is for Tehran’s refusal to return to the negotiation table, describing the allegations as smear campaign.

Addressing a group of Iranian people in the country’s Northeastern province on North Khorassan, the Leader noted the western powers’ media hype about Iran, and said the western claims that Iran has left talks and negotiations is “propaganda fraud and smear campaign”.

“The actual goal of those pursuing such a political propaganda formula is (making) the Iranian nation’s surrender at the negotiation table,” the Leader said, and addressing the western powers, added, “But, you are too small to bring the struggling, insightful and informed Iranian nation to its knees.”

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.