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The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says challenges posed by the global hegemons against Iran will never end and will only make the Iranian nation stronger.
The US and its Western allies have imposed sanctions on Iran based on the unfounded accusation that Tehran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohammad Marandi, professor at the University of Tehran to further discuss the issue.
What follows is a rough transcript of the interview.
Press TV: First of all, the Leader talked about challenges perhaps that has been imposed on the nation by Western countries but before we get into that, they are challenges based on the most recent for example EU sanctions that these Western countries have posed for themselves, such as in the UK where it is said that this is going to be threatening to push European winter fuel bills yet higher based on the sanctions on Iran’s gas.
Marandi: It is pretty obvious, I think to everyone, that the higher prices of oil and gas right now are partially due to the sanctions against Iran and therefore Europeans and Americans are sacrificing basically the well-being of their own people for the sake of the Israeli regime but of course they also are causing increased anger in Iran and across the globe towards the United States and the Europeans because they are being seen as trying to make ordinary Iranians suffer, trying to prevent Iranians from importing even wheat and rice and medicine, although they are not successful as they like to and this has shown, I think, the very uncivilized side of the European and American politics and it will only hurt their interest in the Middle East and they will make Iranians more critical if not hostile -- ordinary Iranians-- towards the United States and the Europeans and their policies.
Press TV: Iran's Leader, in terms of the New Year for Iran, has said that this is the year of Economic Jihad and an important portion of this, regarding economic issues, is the focus on domestic production, we could talk a lot about how challenges have been turned into opportunities, but in particular, for example, when it comes to military investments, comes to mind, for example, the drone technology of which Iran has, over the most recent… going into Israeli airspace in the Occupied Palestinian land. That is just an example. Perhaps you can shed more light on how these challenges have been turned into opportunities.
Marandi: Well, in the 1980s when the Iran-Iraq war was taking place, because of previous regime's alliance with the US and the fact that Pahlavi dynasty was completely dependent on the United States, the Iranians really did not have a military industry and so during the initial years of the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranians had major shortcomings.
As a result of the sanctions that Western countries and their allies as well as the Eastern bloc imposed on Iran, Iran began developing its military industry. At that time, while Saddam Hussein was being given chemical weapons to use against ordinary Iranians, ordinary Iraqis as well as the Iranian military by Western powers, by the US, Britain, Germany, France and so on, these supposedly civilized Western countries, the Iranians were prevented from importing even gas masks, obviously so that Iraqi chemical weapons would have maximum effect.
So Iranians saw that they were surrounded basically by hostile forces and they were being prevented from obtaining weapons to defend themselves and this caused the country to move towards self sufficiency in the military industry and now Iran's military is highly developed, it has missile systems that can strike at American warships in the Persian Gulf if the US attempts to engage in any aggressive acts against Iran and the main reason that the Zionist regime does not dare attack Iran is because it knows that Iran's response would be very swift and severe.
So sanctions have caused difficulty in the country, the Americans and Europeans have killed ordinary Iranians by trying to deprive people of medicine and the Iranians the means to defend themselves, but at the end of the day, the Iranians have overcome and they have grown stronger as a result.
PressTV - Iran turns pain of sanctions into power: Analyst
The US and its Western allies have imposed sanctions on Iran based on the unfounded accusation that Tehran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohammad Marandi, professor at the University of Tehran to further discuss the issue.
What follows is a rough transcript of the interview.
Press TV: First of all, the Leader talked about challenges perhaps that has been imposed on the nation by Western countries but before we get into that, they are challenges based on the most recent for example EU sanctions that these Western countries have posed for themselves, such as in the UK where it is said that this is going to be threatening to push European winter fuel bills yet higher based on the sanctions on Iran’s gas.
Marandi: It is pretty obvious, I think to everyone, that the higher prices of oil and gas right now are partially due to the sanctions against Iran and therefore Europeans and Americans are sacrificing basically the well-being of their own people for the sake of the Israeli regime but of course they also are causing increased anger in Iran and across the globe towards the United States and the Europeans because they are being seen as trying to make ordinary Iranians suffer, trying to prevent Iranians from importing even wheat and rice and medicine, although they are not successful as they like to and this has shown, I think, the very uncivilized side of the European and American politics and it will only hurt their interest in the Middle East and they will make Iranians more critical if not hostile -- ordinary Iranians-- towards the United States and the Europeans and their policies.
Press TV: Iran's Leader, in terms of the New Year for Iran, has said that this is the year of Economic Jihad and an important portion of this, regarding economic issues, is the focus on domestic production, we could talk a lot about how challenges have been turned into opportunities, but in particular, for example, when it comes to military investments, comes to mind, for example, the drone technology of which Iran has, over the most recent… going into Israeli airspace in the Occupied Palestinian land. That is just an example. Perhaps you can shed more light on how these challenges have been turned into opportunities.
Marandi: Well, in the 1980s when the Iran-Iraq war was taking place, because of previous regime's alliance with the US and the fact that Pahlavi dynasty was completely dependent on the United States, the Iranians really did not have a military industry and so during the initial years of the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranians had major shortcomings.
As a result of the sanctions that Western countries and their allies as well as the Eastern bloc imposed on Iran, Iran began developing its military industry. At that time, while Saddam Hussein was being given chemical weapons to use against ordinary Iranians, ordinary Iraqis as well as the Iranian military by Western powers, by the US, Britain, Germany, France and so on, these supposedly civilized Western countries, the Iranians were prevented from importing even gas masks, obviously so that Iraqi chemical weapons would have maximum effect.
So Iranians saw that they were surrounded basically by hostile forces and they were being prevented from obtaining weapons to defend themselves and this caused the country to move towards self sufficiency in the military industry and now Iran's military is highly developed, it has missile systems that can strike at American warships in the Persian Gulf if the US attempts to engage in any aggressive acts against Iran and the main reason that the Zionist regime does not dare attack Iran is because it knows that Iran's response would be very swift and severe.
So sanctions have caused difficulty in the country, the Americans and Europeans have killed ordinary Iranians by trying to deprive people of medicine and the Iranians the means to defend themselves, but at the end of the day, the Iranians have overcome and they have grown stronger as a result.
PressTV - Iran turns pain of sanctions into power: Analyst
