TEHRAN: Iran must continue its struggle against the United States, a cleric said yesterday a day after Washington renewed long-standing US financial sanctions against Iran.

US President Barack Obama offered a new approach towards Iran when he took office in January, but Iran remains locked in dispute with Washington and other world powers over its nuclear energy programme.

The West suspects Iran’s nuclear work aims in part to allow it to acquire atomic weapons. Tehran denies the charge.

Iran has also accused Washington and other Western countries of fomenting protests that erupted after a presidential election in June which opposition candidates say was fraudulent.

“If we are to assure that the Islamic establishment, the revolution and Islam are to stay and the people are to live comfortably, the flag of the struggle against America should always stay hoisted,” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said.

“What does it mean when the US Congress comes and allocates $55m for the weakening of the Islamic Republic? It means they are waging war against God and against the people of this country. They are constantly engaging in enmity,” he said in a Friday prayer sermon broadcast on state radio.

It was not clear what allocation Jannati was referring to, but Congress has in the past provided money for promoting democracy and civil society groups in Iran.

Obama notified Congress on Thursday that he was extending a set of existing US measures against Tehran for another year, saying relations with the Islamic republic had not returned to normal.

The sanctions, which involve certain frozen Iranian assets, stem from a “national emergency” the US government declared in November 1979 during the Iranian revolution, when the US-backed Shah was deposed and revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran.