West seeks to wage economic war on Iran: Iranian minister

Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mehdi Ghazanfari says the hegemonic powers aim to wage an economic war on the Islamic Republic by imposing unilateral sanctions.

“In the current conditions, ill-wishers of the sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran have focused sanctions on oil, banking, insurance, production, trade and transportation sectors after witnessing the failure of the previous sanctions [that they imposed on Iran] during the past three decades,” Ghazanfari said on Wednesday.

He went on to note that, Iran’s economic outlook shows an increase in the investment volume, expansion of domestic and foreign trade, economic growth, and promotes the sense among the Iranian nation to believe in themselves.

At the beginning of 2012, the US and the EU approved new sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors. The embargoes aim to prevent other countries from purchasing the Iranian oil or transacting with the Central Bank of Iran.

Washington and the EU have declared that the bans are meant to force Iran to abandon its nuclear energy program, which they claim to include a military component.

Iran has vehemently refuted the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use the nuclear technology for peaceful objectives.