Iran impossible to sanction, able to sell oil: Veep
Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri believes it is impossible to sanction Iran, a day after saying the country was selling as much oil as it needed despite US sanctions.
“Iran, due to its immense capacities, cannot be sanctioned,” he said during the commissioning of two new steel plants in the southeastern Kerman province Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump ushered in “the most biting sanctions ever imposed” against Iran in August by declaring that “they ratchet up to yet another level” in November when the second round of the sanctions was imposed.
“Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States,” he said then.
Jahangiri was sanguine, stating that Iran would overcome the coercive measures by depending on its massive capacities. “The Iranian nation, by relying on domestic capabilities and capacities, will defeat the enemy’s sanctions,” he said.
“We need to move the development current to a direction where the enemy realizes that sanctions will have no effect on us,” Jahangiri said.
“We must have a spirit of self-confidence and not underestimate ourselves because Iran is a huge country with vast capacities,” he added.
On Monday, Jahangiri said US rulers had decided to crank up pressure on the Iranian people and confront the Islamic Republic but Tehran was coping with the situation.
“Despite all the American plans to prevent the sale of Iranian oil and transfer of money from Iran and block imports of basic goods such as medicine, we are selling as much oil as we need,” he said.
“And many countries are keen to use Iranian oil and they are buying Iran's oil. We also transfer money with the methods we know and import basic goods and medicine as much as the people need at the right price,” Jahangiri added.
Trump is targeting Iran’s main source of revenue as well as its financial sector, essentially making 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries off-limits to foreign banks.
He has pledged to bring Iran’s oil exports down to zero, but fears of a price rally have forced him to backtrack and give waivers to eight leading buyers of Iranian oil.
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