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Saturday 16 February 2013 - 11:20

Leader urges destruction of nuclear weapons worldwide

Story Code : 240066
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addresses a meeting with thousands of clerics, officials and people of the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz on February 16, 2013.3
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addresses a meeting with thousands of clerics, officials and people of the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz on February 16, 2013.3
“We believe that nuclear weapons must be obliterated, and we do not intend to make nuclear weapons, but if we had not had this belief and had decided to possess nuclear weapons, no power could have prevented us,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in an address to thousands of clerics, officials and people of the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz on Saturday.
 
The Leader also criticized Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a recent row during the impeachment of the labor minister.
 
Ayatollah Khamenei said that leveling accusations by the head of one branch of the government against the other two, the legislative and judicial branches, over an “unsubstantiated document” is unlawful and in violation of the rights of the Iranian nation.
 
On February 3, Iran’s Majlis voted to dismiss Labor and Social Affairs Minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslami over his failure to remove Saeed Mortazavi from his post as the head of the Social Security Organization.
 
During Sheikholeslami’s open impeachment session, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played a tape showing a meeting between Mortazavi and Fazel Larijani, the brother of the Majlis speaker.
 
The video purportedly showed Fazel Larijani attempting to use his family’s political status for financial gain. Fazel Larijani has declared that he would file a lawsuit against Mortazavi and President Ahmadinejad for what he called an intrusion of privacy.
 
The leader also criticized the Majlis speaker for overreacting to the accusations pressed by the president.
 
Ayatollah Khamenei also said the very idea of impeachment at Majlis for a reason that does not relate to the minister was wrong.
 
The Leader stated that Iranian officials must work to set aside differences and resolve domestic problems.
 
The Leader further pointed to the Iranian nation’s high turnout in the rallies held across the country to mark the 34th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and said economic problems did not lead to a separation between the people and the Islamic establishment.
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