Minister: Iran’s Energy Projects Running Despite Sanctions

Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou underlined the failure of the US-led western sanctions against Iran, and said that the country’s development projects are moving forward without any problem.

The Iranian energy minister pointed to the high capacities of his ministry, and said, “The enemies can do whatever they want, but sanctions cannot influence Iran’s water and electricity projects to bring them to a halt.”

“The US has commissioned 400 people for the implementation of sanctions against Iran in its banks and different projects in a bid to restrict the Islamic Republic through direct supervision over (the implementation of) these sanctions, but it has failed,” Namjou said.

He noted that although sanctions might slow down the execution of some projects in his ministry, the country’s water and power projects will never be halted, thanks to the existing capacities of the energy ministry.

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 and the western embargos 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.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.