US-led sanctions helped Iran wean economy off oil money, minister says
Iran's Minister of Economy and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini says
US-led sanctions have assisted the Islamic Republic in achieving
its objective of weaning its economy off petrodollars, Press TV
reported.
"...Thanks to the sanctions [imposed] by enemies, a historical
dream of Iran is being realized as the oil revenues' share in the
administration of the country's affairs has been reduced," the
minister said on Tuesday in a message ahead of Persian New Year
beginning on March 21.
"We passed the [calendar] year 1391...with the enemies of the
Islamic Republic targeting the country's economy and imposing extra
sanctions against our country in a bid to block Iran's progress,"
Hosseini added.
He said that his ministry managed to "counter and blunt the impact
of economic sanctions."
On Monday, Managing Director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company
(IOTC) Seyyed Pirouz Mousavi said the country has succeeded to
indigenize the manufacture of some 170 equipment needed for oil
export operations.
Despite political and economic pressures on Iran, the country's oil
industry has managed to progress by relying on specialized
capabilities and scientific knowledge of its own experts, Mousavi
said.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union
imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the
goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and
conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
On October 15, 2012, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement
on another round of sanctions against Iran.
All these sanctions have been imposed on Iran for the groundless
charges of military diversion in Iran's nuclear program.