[caption id="attachment_144845" align="alignright" width="190"] Former Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi[/caption]

TEHRAN (FNA)- Former Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi lashed out at the West for imposing unfair sanctions against Iran, and said the intensification of the western countries' embargos on Tehran was the result of their wrong perception of Iran's domestic capabilities and conditions.

"The intensified sanctions by the western negotiators is the result of their wrong understanding about Iran's situation and conditions of Iranian people," Abbasi said, addressing a press conference in Isfahan province, Central Iran, on Wednesday.


He pointed to the opposition by the western countries to Iran's nuclear program, and said,  "The US has always pursued the strategy of sanctions when it comes to Iran's nuclear issue and it never recognizes a nuclear Iran."


Abbasi said that the US officials on numerous occasions have announced that they would never accept Iran's nuclear enrichment activities.


Last week, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned of the arrogant powers' plots to impede Iran's progress in different scientific and technological fields, and said even if Tehran accepts all the demands of the world powers in the nuclear standoff, they will never remove their embargos against the country.


"Their main goal of such measures (sanctions) is humiliation of the Iranian nation and stopping the nation and Islamic Republic's great move towards a new Islamic civilization and I believe that even if we accept the demands that they (want to) dictate on us in the nuclear issue, the sanctions will not be removed since they are opposed to the (Islamic) Revolution in essence," Ayatollah said in Tehran, addressing a large number of visiting Iranians from East Azerbaijan province.


He elaborated on the underlying cause of economic problems in Iran, and said, "One of the most important problems is the arrogant powers' plots after the end of the (Iraqi-) imposed war (1980-1988) to prevent Iran from becoming an influential economic hub in the region and the world."


Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the western states' attempts to keep Iran away from partnership in major regional and international economic projects, including oil and gas pipelines, and keep Tehran under sanctions, and said in addition to the arrogant powers' plots, the country's economy is suffering from dependence on oil and government's major role in different projects.


He underlined the necessity for implementation of Resistance Economy plans in Iran, and said, "The resistance economy which is necessary for the country under any conditions, under or free from sanctions, means that the country's economic foundation should be organized in a way that it is not affected by global trembles."


"If the country's economic basis is planned and strengthened based on using people's capacities and domestic production, we will never mourn or grow concerned over sanctions and reduction in oil prices," Ayatollah Khamenei said.


He underscored that one of the important and main solutions to get rid of oil-oriented economy is cutting the budget's dependence on oil revenues, and emphasized the necessity for using the abundant capacities of the Iranian youth to make progress and materialize the goals of the Revolution.


He blasted the US threats and the European states' obedience to the US policies, and said, "If they is to be any sanction imposed, the Iranian nation too can impose sanction (on them) and it will do so."


By Fars News Agency