Official Downplays Effects of Western Embargos

An Iranian industry official underlined Iran’s extensive cooperation with different world states, and played down the effects of the western sanctions against Tehran.

The remarks were made by Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Alireza Shojaee here in Tehran on Saturday.

“The US and the Western powers have admitted that Iran has overcome the toughest pressures they have put on the country, saying Iran is shifting from petrodollars to revenues from non-oil exports,” Shojaee said.

He noted that Iran’s industrial and mineral exports show a tremendous growth, which makes up for a drop in revenues in other sectors.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed West’s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.