A senior Iranian lawmaker says Western sanctions have been imposed on Iran to force the Islamic Republic to abandon its inalienable right to use peaceful nuclear energy.

“What Westerners are pursuing with sanctions against Iran, is hurting [the country’s] economic programs, creating discontent among people, and ultimately convincing Iran to give in to their demands and give up its nuclear and enrichment programs,” member of the Majlis Presiding Board Hossein Sobhaninia said on Friday.

Sobhaninia added that diplomatic negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (Russia, China, France, the US, the UK, and Germany) is a logical way to reduce sensitivities regarding Iran's nuclear energy program.


The Iranian lawmaker urged parties involved in the nuclear negotiations with Iran to “decide whether they really want to negotiate or just kill time.”

“It seems this is an issue on which Western countries have not reached a conclusion yet,” he added.

Illegal US-engineered sanctions have been imposed based on the baseless allegation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the NPT and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted toward military purposes.
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News ID 182948