Leader Underlines Iran’s Countermeasures against Sanctions
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei set out plans to boost Iran’s economy and cut its dependence on crude oil revenues, saying that Iran could counter the Western sanctions and hit back at the sanctions in the same way.
“We can withstand the enemies’ hue and cry and measures over the issue of sanctions and stymie their purposes,” the Leader said in a huge gathering of Iranian people in Tehran on Wednesday.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the main purpose behind the arrogant powers’ use of sanctions against Iran is to “humiliate the Iranian nation” and to halt Iran’s move towards the “modern Islamic civilization.”
The Leader also made it clear that anti-Iran sanctions will remain in place even if the country agrees with the demands of the other side in the course of talks on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
“I believe that even if we accept the very demands they dictate over the nuclear issue, the sanctions will not be lifted yet, because they disagree the principle of the (Islamic) Revolution.”
Imam Khamenei underlined that Iran needs to rely on the capacities of its young generation, warning that Iran could also impose sanctions in the face of the threats made by the bullying US administration and the sanctions slapped by its European followers.
“If there is to be sanction, the Iranian nation can also impose sanctions, and will do that,” the Leader asserted.
Imam Khamenei further called for the formulation of plans to strengthen the country’s economy by cutting its dependence on oil revenues and state ownership.
Selling crude oil and spending its revenue in the country is the easiest way to make money, the Supreme Leader warned, and slammed the harmful method as an “ominous legacy” of the Pahlavi regime before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Reiterating the necessity to implement the “Resistance Economy” plan in Iran and to found the economy on the basis of internal capacities and domestic production, Ayatollah Khamenei said such approach will immunize Iran against sanctions or oil price decline.
Iran’s budget should become free of the petrodollars, the Leader added, noting that reliance on tax on production and trade is a proper option to compensate for the oil income.
“Some major capitalists that evade tax payment, commit a crime, because they make the country further dependent on the oil revenue and prepare the ground for more problems,” Imam Khamenei said.
