Iran Able To Withstand Sanctions: Analyst

Islamabad, April 29, IRNA – A Pakistani researcher has said that the Islamic Republic of Iran has the capacity to withstand all kinds of sanctions. Talking to IRNA, Zafar Iqbal Cheema said that western countries have not been able to produce any evidence against peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. The US and its allies accuse Iran of following a military nuclear program, but Tehran has repeatedly refuted the charges. Tehran argues that as a member of the IAEA and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the country has the right to use peaceful nuclear energy. Cheema said that if the sanctions are approved by the United Nations Security Council then they have become mandatory but China and Russia have not supported sanctions against Iran. “So called unilateral sanctions cannot hurt Iran,” said the analyst. The intellectual expressing his views said that Iran has enough resources and they are getting about 7 billion dollars a year from their oil reserves. He opined that some services are monopolized by the West and they don’t want Muslim countries to develop nuclear capabilities. “Iran has the capacity to withstand all kinds of sanctions”, the researcher said. “Definitely Iran is progressing in all fields despite sanctions, I have no doubt about that,” the intellectual added. Cheema noted that the West has not been able to produce any evidence against peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. He added that Iran is the signatory of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that allows Iran to enrich uranium upto 20 percent for civilian nuclear plant. The analyst noted that some non-nuclear weapon states like Japan and Germany possess over 20 percent enriched uranium. But the West does not worry about that. “Why are they after Iran’s peaceful nuclear program,” he said. “I have no evidence to question Iran’s peaceful nuclear technology,” Cheema said. However he said that there is no international convention signed in the world against nuclear weapons and any country which is not signatory to the NPT can develop nuclear weapons. Cheema has been Professor of Defense & Strategic Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University. He has written extensively on a wide range of issues related to Pakistani security and has participated in many international conferences./end