Iran won’t be swayed by Western ‘anger’ or sanctions, Khamenei asserts

Iran will persist in making its own decisions and will not be swayed from its course by Western powers and their sanctions, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday.

Iran “does not accept the demands of any superpower” and “makes its decisions solely based on the interests of its people and the country, even if all of the world’s powers get angry at its decisions,” he said, according to an AFP translation of the speech, which was posted on Khamenei’s website on Wednesday.

Iran is widely suspected of attempting to develop nuclear weapons technology, a course opposed by the West and Israel. Tehran has refused to let officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspect some of its nuclear facilities, and recent intelligence has indicated that Iran’s nuclear program is continuing full steam ahead.

Over the last six months, Iran and the P5+1 — the permanent members of the UN Security Council with Germany — have met several with Iranian representatives several times in an effort to persuade Tehran to curb its uranium enrichment program.

As a result, Iran has also been under increasingly stringent economic sanctions from the US and European powers.

On Tuesday, Khamenei accused Israeli and Western media of exaggerating the sanctions’ effects.

“Drawing a black and dark picture of the country’s situation is the known method of Western and Zionist media, aimed at halting the Iranian nation’s path,” he asserted.

Israeli leaders have hinted at the need for a strike on Iran in order to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons, and recent weeks have seen an escalating war of words between Iranian and Israeli leaders.