Press TV
Secretary-General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) says the organization has no plans to interfere in issues related to Iran or take part in a military strike against the country.
In an interview with Turkish TRT Haber TV channel, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said NATO believed in the necessity of exerting more economic and political pressure on Iran. He stated that imposing even tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic will eventually bring positive results.
“I believe a political way out [of the current standoff with Iran] can be found,” Rasmussen added. Rasmussen is currently in Turkey to take part in ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of Turkey’s membership in NATO.
On December 31, 2011, the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran aimed at punishing countries for importing Iranian oil or doing business with the country’s central bank. The foreign ministers of the European Union also met in Brussels on January 23 to ban oil imports from Iran, freezing its central bank’s assets within EU countries and imposing a ban on selling grains, diamonds, gold and other precious metals to the country.
The UN Security Council has also imposed four rounds of international sanctions against Iran under pressure from US, Israel and their European allies which claim that Tehran is pursuing military goals under the cover of its civilian nuclear program.
Tehran refutes Western claims noting that as a member of International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is entitled to use the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
