Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, May 23 Irans former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Tuesday that the West could not force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, the government-run news agency Fars reported. Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, May 23 Irans former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Tuesday that the West could not force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, the government-run news agency Fars reported.
The West was trying to take away nuclear knowledge from Tehran, Rafsanjani, who chairs the State Expediency Council, told leaders of the hard-line political group Motalefeh.
The West wants to take away this know-how from the Iranian people, but this is not possible, he said.
Motalefeh is short for Jamiathaye Motalefeh Islami, or Unified Islamic Associations. It came into existence in the 1960s as a clandestine radical Islamic fundamentalist group supporting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Its members assassinated the Shahs Prime Minister Ali Mansour and several other political figures. Its leaders, who hailed from Tehrans Bazaar, became multi-billionaire entrepreneurs after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
