Ahmadinejad : Withdrawal of foreign companies not to halt Iran\'s progress

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the effects of the western sanctions against the country, and said the withdrawal of a number of foreign companies from Iran will not prevent Iran from progress. Ahmadinejad pointed to some foreign companies which have withdrawn from their projects in Iran\'s oil industry since their illegitimate demands were not fulfilled, and said their withdrawal did not cause any halt in Iran\'s move towards progress. The President made the remarks during an inauguration ceremony for three development and infrastructural projects in the Southern province of Hormozgan. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West\'s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West\'s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians\' national resolve to continue the path. The Islamic Republic says that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA\'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.