Azerbaijan, Baku, March 7 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
The nuclear issue is just a pretext for Western countries to impose sanctions on Iran, country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, Fars news agency reported.
Khamenei said that the nuclear issue is one of the challenges that the Iran is facing, adding that this problem is solvable.
According to the Supreme Leader, the Western countries have a long-term goal, which is to make people of Iran turn against its government.
"Their plan failed, as at the celebrations due to the vistory of Islamic Revolution, people came out by themselves, it was their own wish," Khamenei noted.
Speaking of the recent nuclear talks in Kazakhstan between Iran and the P5+1 group, Khamenei said that the group did no do anything important, that could have been assessed.
"They only agreed to some small parts of Iranian nation nuclear rights' recognition," Khamenei said. "If we look at the history, the West has ignored its own agreements, and to assess their integrity, at the last meeting, we should wait until the next meeting."
Iran and P5+1 group have wrapped up the nuclear negotiations in Kazakhstan on Feb. 27 after two days of talks.
The sides agreed to hold expert level talks in Istanbul on 17-18 March, which will be followed by another Iran-P5+1 talks in Kazakhstan.
Khamenei also spoke about the upcoming presidential elections in Iran, calling on the people to be passionate about the whole electing process.
Next presidential elections in Iran are slated to be held on June 14, 2013.
The voters will select the successor of current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not able to participate in the elections for the third straight time due to country's constitutional laws.
Elsewhere, Khamenei noted that while Iran still facing economic problems because of sanctions, the good thing is that these problems can be solved.
"I strongly advise the officials to present me with a report about how the work in this direction is going," he said.