Larijani Dismisses West’s Pretext for Anti-Iran Sanctions as Unreal

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blasted the West’s unreal allegations against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, and said the US-led West is lying about the cause and the goal of sanctions against Iran.

“Iranian nuclear program is just an excuse for enemies to exert pressure on Iran and the fact is that they cannot tolerate Iranian progress in science and technology and its inspiring role for other regional nations, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine,” Larijani said on Friday.

“The Iranian nation by opting for resistance economy will enhance national investment in the economic fields and go ahead with plans to strengthen national producing sector to thwart the sanctions adopted by the western governments.”

Larijani added that since enemies’ military threats and their conspiracy to divide the nation were neutralized, they are using sanctions as a means to pressure Iranian nation.

Political observers believe that the West has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran’s nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.

Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the NPT would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West’s hardline stance on Tehran.

Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. The United States and the European Union have ratcheted up their sanctions on Iran this year to force it to curb its nuclear program.

Iranian officials have always shrugged off the sanctions, saying that pressures make them strong and reinvigorate their resolve to further move towards self-sufficiency.