Former N. Negotiator Underlines Iran’s Progress despite Sanctions
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Saeed Jalili, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator in the talks between Tehran and the six major world powers, placed emphasis on the county’s eye-catching progress despite a raft of unilateral sanctions against Tehran.
In a Sunday meeting with European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in Tehran, Jalili said he was glad to see the visiting EU official having the opportunity to witness Iran’s new advances in spite of the whole sanctions that have targeted the country in recent years.
“Such progress is based upon our religious, indigenous and civilization potential,” Jalili, who is also a former Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), told Ashton.
He further linked the dramatic progress in Iran to the country’s democratic system, stressing that Iranians would not allow the others to treat them as an exception in the global arena.
“Our people will not allow… any obstacle to be placed in the way of their development,” he underlined.
In recent years the western governments have imposed new sanctions on Iran on the pretext that the country may be trying to develop a nuclear weapon capacity under the guise of its civilian nuclear program, an allegation strongly dismissed by Iran which states that it needs nuclear energy for generating electricity and other purely peaceful purposes.
Many of the sanctions predate the nuclear dispute and some of them are as old as the Islamic system in Iran, and the US has always found pretexts to tighten the existing sanctions and impose new ones.
In relevant remarks in October last year, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei touched upon Iran’s great achievements in scientific and technological fields, and emphasized the necessity for vigilance against a powerful front in the world which is after hindering the Iranian nation’s progress.
“In analyzing the entire political, economic, regional and international events and issues, this realistic and macro prospect should prevail that there is a powerful front in the world that does not want the Islamic Iran turn into a powerful country and nation in diverse fields, particularly in science and technology,” the Leader stated.
“After more than three decades, the nightmare of western governments and the US has now come true, and a major national and regional power has emerged,” Ayatollah Khamenei added, referring to Iran’s influential role after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.