MP lauds Iran’s resistance against US, Western sanctions

Iran is the only country which has been able to stand against the US despite the different economic, scientific, industrial and political sanctions imposed on the country, a prominent Iranian legislator said Monday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is the sole country which has been able to present a strategy for confrontation against the US while it has been under 75 types of sanctions,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said.

Referring to the trend of Iran-US relations, Falahatpisheh reiterated that Tehran’s negotiations with Washington do not mean a resumption of ties with the country but aim to lower tensions between the two arch foes.

He referred to Iran-US talks on Afghanistan and Iraq in the past, and described them as measures adopted to reduce tension in the war-hit countries.

The legislator reminded that according to the US strategy, establishment of good relations with any country requires that given country’s friendship and agreement with Israel.

This is while Iran has presented an opposite strategy which urges for the dismantlement of the Zionist regime because it believes that the regime has been imposed on the Middle East.

The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States’ espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty years.

Obama White House in March tried to offer an olive branch to Iran and repair strained ties of nearly three decades.

Tehran, meanwhile, said it would only consider the promise after seeing practical changes in the US policies.

Later, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Ali Khamenei, in a televised speech to mark the Iranian New Year, called for a real change in Washington’s attitude towards Tehran, saying that the US has shown no practical change in its hostile policies on Iran yet.