Ayatollah says Iran's enemies will fail

TEHRAN, April 30 (UPI) -- Iran's foes can't stop the country from pursuing peaceful nuclear activities, an Iranian religious leader said Friday during prayer sessions.

Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani said the country's supreme leader has stressed that using nuclear weapons is "religiously forbidden" so claims the Islamic republic is developing a nuclear bomb were false, the government-backed IRNA news agency reported.

"Enemies are playing tricks against Iran in connection with its nuclear issues, thus following the wrong and false path," Kashani said.

He also disparaged what he called a disinformation campaign by foreign governments against Iran's peaceful nuclear activities as an example of deception and ruse.

"Although the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has announced that atomic weapons are religiously forbidden, the opponents of the Islamic system continue to level baseless accusations against us, and threaten to impose sanctions," the substitute Friday prayer leader said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said enemy aggression would be met with equal force.

"Any hand from anywhere in the world that wants to shoot at Iran will be cut off before pulling the trigger," Ahmadinejad said Thursday in an address on the southern island of Kish.

"The Islamic Republic's experience proved that even when the East and the West got united, they could not grab an inch of the Iranian territory."