US politician opposes sanctions against Iran

President of the American Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass voiced his opposition to the US-led western sanctions against Iran, and underlined the necessity for finding a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the stalemate between Tehran and the West over the former's nuclear program. Haass made the remarks earlier this week in the ABC TV's Good Morning America program hosted by George Stephanopoulos. "I support concentrated diplomatic efforts and I oppose sanctions against Iran," the president of the US Council on Foreign Relations said. He noted that he also opposes using military option against Iran's nuclear sites and facilities, reiterating that a diplomatic solution is the best solution under the current circumstances. 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 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. Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.