Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri downplayed the impacts of the sanctions imposed against Tehran by the western countries, saying that Iranian experts and engineers have changed pressures and embargos into opportunities.

"The sons of the Islamic Republic of Iran have turned the sanctions into opportunities at a time when everyone thought that Iran should surrender," Jahangiri told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the unveiling of the first home-made 25-megawatt wind turbine generator in Karaj city, near Tehran, on Tuesday morning.

He noted that the big powers realized that not only the western sanctions have failed to prevent Iran from making progress, but also the Iranian youth used them as an opportunity for reconstruction of the country.

"The most complicated and most advanced technology which has been monopolized by certain countries is now being used by MAPNA," the Iranian first vice-president said.

Earlier today, Iran unveiled the first home-made 25-megawatt wind turbine generator in Karaj.

The 25-MW wind turbine generator was unveiled in a ceremony attended by the Iranian first vice-president on Tuesday morning.

The new generator has been manufactured by Iranian experts at MAPNA Generator Engineering and Manufacturing Company (Pars).

MAPNA Group is a group of Iranian companies involved in construction and installation of energy production machinery, including boilers, gas and steam turbines, electrical generators, as well as industrial scale petroleum processing installations, railway locomotives and wind power.

The company Iran Power Plant Projects Management Company (MAPNA) was founded in 1993 with the aim of developing indigenous knowledge production capacity for petroleum facilities, power plants and other industrial facilities, and as a contract management company.

Iran has taken wide strides in science and technology in recent years.

Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the unilateral western embargos for turning down west's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed west's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.

News ID 187652