TEHRAN – Leader of the Islamic Revolution said on Sunday morning that nuclear industry is the engine of scientific progress in Iran.

“It is for 20 years that the foes have created a nuclear challenge for us because they know that the ‘move’ in nuclear industry acts like a ‘key’ for the country’s scientific progress,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with a number of nuclear scientists, experts and officials.

Before making such remarks, the Leader visited an exhibition of nuclear industries held at the Imam Khomeini Hosseiniyeh.

Ayatollah Khamenei went on to say that accusations that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons is a lie and this is something the enemies themselves are aware of it.

“Pretexts of nuclear arms is a lie and they themselves known it,” the Leader asserted.

Ayatollah Khamenei repeated his long held religious decree that production, stockpiling and use of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, are haram (forbidden).

“Based on our Islamic principle we don’t want to move toward (nuclear) weapons, otherwise they could not deter it, as they could not prevent our nuclear progresses,” the Leader stated.

Ayatollah Khamenei added nuclear industry causes progress in technical, economic, and health sectors, helps improve the citizens’ living standards and also promotes the country’s “political weight” in the world.