ID :
192771
Mon, 07/04/2011 - 13:43
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/192771
The shortlink copeid
President Downplays Effect of Western Sanctions against Iran
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed on Monday that the international and the West's unilateral sanctions against Iran have left no negative impact on the country's progress and merely strengthened the country's independence and national resolve.
"Enemies announced last year that crippling sanctions are imposed against Iran and made their utmost attempts in this regard, but our speed (in progress) increased and they failed," Ahmadinejad said after inaugurating a 318MW combined cycle power plant in the country's Southeastern port city of Chabahar.
He also said that enemies have been striving to block the path of construction and progress in Iran, but to no avail.
He added that Tehran is well informed of the plots hatched by its foes to prevent the country's scientific, industrial and economic progress and has defused them.
Ahmadinejad described the September 11 event and the western countries' invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as satanic measures which actually aim to strike a blow at Iran.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest reserves of both oil and gas, is facing US sanctions over its civilian nuclear program.
Iranian officials have always stressed that the International and unilateral sanctions against Iran have had no result but inflicting damage on the European companies since Tehran has and is finding Asian partners instead. Several Chinese and other Asian firms are negotiating or signing up to oil and gas deals.
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.
Iran increased its gasoline production after the United States and the European Union started approving their own unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's energy and banking sectors, including a US boycott of gasoline supplies to Iran.
After the UN Security Council ratified a fourth sanctions resolution against Iran on June 9, the US Senate passed a legislation to expand sanctions on foreign companies that invest in Iran's energy sector and those foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran or help develop its refining capacity.
The bill, which later received the approval of the House of Representatives, said companies that continue to sell gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran would be banned from receiving Energy Department contracts to deliver crude to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill was then signed into law by US President Barack Obama.
But Iran's self-sufficiency in gasoline production made Washington's plots fall flat. Iran boosted gasoline production so much that in September 2010, the country started exporting gasoline.
"The first shipment of Iran's gasoline has been exported," Director of the International Affairs Department of the National Iranian Oil Company Ali Asqar Arshi announced at the time.
"Enemies announced last year that crippling sanctions are imposed against Iran and made their utmost attempts in this regard, but our speed (in progress) increased and they failed," Ahmadinejad said after inaugurating a 318MW combined cycle power plant in the country's Southeastern port city of Chabahar.
He also said that enemies have been striving to block the path of construction and progress in Iran, but to no avail.
He added that Tehran is well informed of the plots hatched by its foes to prevent the country's scientific, industrial and economic progress and has defused them.
Ahmadinejad described the September 11 event and the western countries' invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as satanic measures which actually aim to strike a blow at Iran.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest reserves of both oil and gas, is facing US sanctions over its civilian nuclear program.
Iranian officials have always stressed that the International and unilateral sanctions against Iran have had no result but inflicting damage on the European companies since Tehran has and is finding Asian partners instead. Several Chinese and other Asian firms are negotiating or signing up to oil and gas deals.
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.
Iran increased its gasoline production after the United States and the European Union started approving their own unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's energy and banking sectors, including a US boycott of gasoline supplies to Iran.
After the UN Security Council ratified a fourth sanctions resolution against Iran on June 9, the US Senate passed a legislation to expand sanctions on foreign companies that invest in Iran's energy sector and those foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran or help develop its refining capacity.
The bill, which later received the approval of the House of Representatives, said companies that continue to sell gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran would be banned from receiving Energy Department contracts to deliver crude to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill was then signed into law by US President Barack Obama.
But Iran's self-sufficiency in gasoline production made Washington's plots fall flat. Iran boosted gasoline production so much that in September 2010, the country started exporting gasoline.
"The first shipment of Iran's gasoline has been exported," Director of the International Affairs Department of the National Iranian Oil Company Ali Asqar Arshi announced at the time.
