Imam Khamenei: Sanctions Made Us Stronger

 
07-02-2009

Iran has achieved breakthroughs in nuclear and space technology despite international sanctions against it, the country's top leader said Saturday.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei told military commanders that instead of weakening Iran, sanctions by the US, the UN and others have forced it to become more self-reliant, leading to greater strides by Iranian scientists and to technological advancements unseen in the country's history.

"It was from the depth of various kinds of sanctions imposed on Iran for years that the Omid satellite came into existence and was sent into orbit," state television quoted Sayyed Khamenei as saying.
"And it was out of all restrictions imposed against the Iranian nation that (Iran) achieved uranium enrichment technology, which is in the hands of few powerful countries," his eminence was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the launch of Iran's first domestically produced satellite.
Since 2006, Iran has been under UN Security Council sanctions, applied to its nuclear and missile industries, for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or the material for atomic bombs. Iran stresses that its nuclear program aims for peaceful use only and it is its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

On Monday night, Iran sent its first domestically made satellite - called the Omid, or hope in Farsi - into orbit using an Iranian-built satellite-carrier rocket. Analysts described it as a key step for an ambitious space program that worries the US and other world powers.