Leader Stresses Resistance against Powers

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that resistance by nations against bullying powers pays off.

“People and their government’s resistance and their demanding their rights will bear fruit,” the Leader said during a meeting with visiting Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The meeting was held on the last day of a three-day visit by the Algerian leader to Tehran.

“The Iranian nation and government achieved all the progress they have despite pressures, sanctions, and threats by the domineering powers,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Tehran has been at loggerheads with the West for the past five years over its civilian nuclear program.

The United States 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 document 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.

Iran is under three 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 it is seeking nothing beyond a materialization of the nuclear rights stipulated in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for all the signatories.

On Monday, Bouteflika met with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said Tehran would press on with its nuclear program despite the risk of fresh sanctions.

During Bouteflika’s visit, Tehran and Algiers inked separate agreements on avoiding double taxation and customs cooperation as well as a memorandum of understanding for banking cooperation.

Bouteflika last visited the Islamic republic in 2003, after agreeing to restore relations with Iran in 2000 on the sidelines of a UN summit during a meeting with Iran’s then reformist president Mohammad Khatami.