TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that the reason behind the world powers’ pressures against Tehran over its peaceful nuclear program is that a powerful Iran is not desired by them.


Addressing the Iranian expatriates in South Africa on Wednesday, Zarif said the whole story of putting pressures on Iran for its nuclear program was because big powers could not tolerate a powerful Iran.

He said he believed the focus on the Iranian nuclear program was not because of concerns about the country’s potentials and capabilities but, in fact, it was an attempt to destroy the power Iran has been building in the region during the past three decades.

Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic.

Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.

Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West's hardline stance on Tehran.

By Fars News Agency

 

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