US claims anti-Iran sanctions working

A senior US Treasury Department official claims unilateral measures against the Islamic Republic are mounting pressure on the country’s economy and banking sector.

Speaking on Monday in Washington US Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey said the measures are imposing “serious costs and constraints on Tehran.”

He stressed that US-sponsored sanctions have “isolated Iran financially and commercially.”

This is while Iranian officials say the country’s economy continues to show growth and that the sanctions have failed to affect the country’s financial sector adding that such measures provide opportunities which the Iranian nation would use to make progress.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has downplayed the sanctions as the “weakness” of those behind the move since “they would have attacked us if they were in a position of power.”

The Iranian oil minister also announced that despite sanctions the country was expected to turn into a gasoline exporter in the near future.

The US, the European Union, and their allies accuse Iran of following a military nuclear program and shortly after the imposition of the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions adopted unilateral punitive measures against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian officials reject Western accusations that Tehran is pursuing a military nuclear program, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Iran has the right to peaceful nuclear energy.