Sanctions will not stop Iran N-program

A senior cleric says the West should learn from its failed measures against the Iranian nation and give up efforts to smother the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

“The West [should] learn from history and what has happened and be aware that Iran’s resilient nation will not be stopped by sanctions,” IRNA quoted Tehran’s interim Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani as saying.

“Nuclear energy in Iran is of an industrial and scientific — and not military — nature,” emphasized the cleric, noting that international envoys invited by Iran, in a goodwill gesture, to tour its nuclear sites have confirmed the civilian nature and transparency of Tehran’s nuclear activities.

Representatives from the IAEA, the Non-aligned Movement, Group of 77 and the Arab League arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a two-day tour of the country’s nuclear sites.

The delegates, who represent more than 120 countries, visited the heavy water reactor in the central Iranian city of Arak on Saturday and toured Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility on Sunday.

On Friday, representatives from Iran and the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany — launched a new round of multifaceted negotiations in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Commenting on the talks, Ayatollah Emami-Kashani expressed hope that the meeting would end with the awakening of the Western team and thus yield a positive result.

The cleric reiterated that the West would gain nothing by imposing tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic and “would merely trouble the imposers of the sanctions.”