TEHRAN -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei here Wednesday underlined the key role of the labor community in improving Iran’s economic situation, calling for additional efforts to turn Western sanctions into an opportunity. 
“It is impossible to talk about economic issues without paying attention to the sanctions that the United States and Europeans say are unprecedented,” he told a group of workers on the occasion of Labor Week. 
“The Westerners falsely cite issues such as nuclear weapons, human rights and support for terrorism as the purpose of imposing sanctions against Iran,” the Leader said, explaining that the claims are nothing but false excuses.
“According to them, the people under the bombardment in Gaza are terrorists, but the malicious, fake and ruthless Zionist government, which has massacred nearly 40,000 people, including several thousand children in six months, is not a terrorist,” he added.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the real goal of Iran’s ill-wishers in imposing sanctions is to put the Islamic Republic under constraint and force it to toe the line of colonial and arrogant powers and surrender to their bullying. 
“Some - God willing out of benevolence - constantly recommend that ‘you accept one of America’s demands in order to solve the problem’. However, there is no end to the expectations of the Americans.”
The Leader touched on his speech a few years ago on the nuclear issue and his request that the Americans specify the limit which a possible Iranian retreat would satisfy them. 
“They said they would never specify a limit because they wanted to move forward step by step and eventually dismantle the country’s nuclear equipment just as they did with that North African country and shut down Iran’s nuclear industry,” he said, apparently referring to Libya under former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. 
“This is while different parts of the country such as health, medicine and other fields depend on the outcomes of nuclear activities,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The Leader reiterated that the main goal of the Americans in imposing sanctions is to force the people of Iran and the Islamic Republic into complete obedience and submission in political and economic fields.
“They want the wealth, reputation and policies of Iran to be in the hands of America like some countries. But, the Islamic establishment, the Islamic zeal and the great and deep-rooted nation of Iran is impossible to submit to their bullying.”
The Leader said, “It should be known to the people of Iran, and it is also known, that the reason for the enmity of bullies is not the lies they tell, but the fact that an independent Iran will not submit to their bullying and is not willing to follow their failed and backward policies that are against divine values and human nature – the policies that some Western analysts admit are destroying the 200-year reputation of America.”
“The Iranian nation is upright and firm, and of course we must show our resolution in our action, work, research and national unity,” he added. 
“If we do this, and avoid laziness and indolence, more opportunities and