Iran's top cleric: Sanctions don't work

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TEHRAN, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Western decisions regarding Iran are made largely in response to lingering diplomatic grievances, not nuclear policies, the country's ruling cleric said.

Iran is struggling to prop up its national currency, the rial, after it collapsed last week. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last week the currency issue was in part a result of sanctions meant as a response to Iran's nuclear program.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Wednesday, however, that sanctions weren't an effective deterrence.

"They pretend that the sanctions will be lifted if the Iranian nation gives up nuclear energy," he was quoted by Iran's state-funded broadcaster Press TV as saying. "They lie. They make decisions out of grudge and aversion (toward Iran) and impose irrational sanctions."

Khamenei said during a regional summit in Tehran in August that Tehran considers nuclear, chemical and similar weapons "a great and unforgivable sin."

The International Atomic Energy Agency that there may be certain military aspects to parts of Iran's controversial nuclear program, however.