TEHRAN -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that despite propaganda by the enemies all the political factions in the country are committed to the preservation of the (Islamic) system even though there may be some extremists anywhere.

In a meeting with heads of the three branches of government, cabinet members, military officials and members of the parliament ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections the Leader said the Islamic Republic is the standard bearer of religious democracy by holding (democratic) elections in the country with subsequent massive turnout.

The Leader said that the results of the (democratic) elections are effective in any decision making, IRNA reported.

"Bringing the masses of people to different scenes is the great art of the Islamic Republic," he said elaborating on the democratic nature of government system in Iran.

The Leader said that victory of the Islamic Revolution prepared the ground for utilizing the widescale potentials of the nation.

The Leader pointed to the eye-catching progress in higher education, campaign against illiteracy, and implementation of major oil, petrochemical projects, steel mills, construction of dams, defense and scientific researches and said all those achievements have been made despite the economic sanctions and non-stop hostility against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"The enemies of Iran have admitted that Iran has been among the ten countries which have acquired technology to produce fuel for the power plants," the leader said.

The Leader said that the United States fostered animosity with Iran from the early days of victory of the Islamic Revolution, because it thought that it lost Iran. So the U.S. formed an alliance with the Zionist regime in the region to embark on conspiracy against the Islamic Republic.

The U.S. engineered different conspiracies ranging from sponsoring military coup, encouraging Iraqi regime to wage eight years of war on Iran, attacking Iranian oil platform, shooting down Iranian Airbus in 1988 and imposing economic sanctions, the Leader said.

"The U.S. should reach the conclusion that hostility with Iran is useless," the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei criticized the United States for launching propaganda campaign against Iranian nuclear program and said that Iran observes the ban on proliferation of nuclear arms.

Prior to Leader’s speech President Mohammad Khatami said that the Islamic Republic of Iran moves in line with the Islamic teachings and opposes proliferation of nuclear arms and has never had such a program. "In presence of the Supreme Leader and top political and military officials of the country, I declare that the Islamic Republic of Iran opposes weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and that any allegation against Iranian nuclear program is unfounded and lie."