Sanctions to strengthen Iran N-resolve

In the wake of a fresh set of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Iran, a senior Iranian lawmaker says such measures cannot weaken the Iranian nation’s resolve in the nuclear issue.

Speaking to IRIB late Saturday, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the nuclear issue has turned into a matter of national willpower.

“With the policy of carrot-and-stick one cannot confront such willpower,” Boroujerdi explained.

The Iranian national security official further warned the West about the adverse effects of exerting pressure on the Islamic Republic, saying such measures would only lead to greater national solidarity on the issue.

Explaining that Iran offered its wholehearted cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, Boroujerdi described the decision to refer the nuclear dossier from the IAEA to the UNSC as “politically-motivated.”

“Today, there is no guarantee that the West would provide Iran with [its needed] 20 percent enriched fuel. The issue of lack of trust in the nuclear case has a 30-year history,” he went on to say.

Boroujerdi’s remarks came as earlier on June 9, the majority of the 15-member UNSC voted in favor of a fourth round of sanctions which broadens earlier financial and military restrictions against Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected the Western claim that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons, arguing that the IAEA has in numerous reports asserted that its inspectors and surveillance equipment at Iran’s nuclear facilities have found no evidence of diversion in the country’s declared nuclear material.