Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Iran possesses the most advanced technology in the military industry, Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohsen Rezaee said on Feb. 19, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.
He went on to note that Iran is capable of building drones, while it still lacks the necessary technologies to build simple agricultural machines.
"An oil-dependent economy is completely vulnerable to sanctions," Rezaee said.
He further urged the country's oil ministry to invest its income in the construction of oil refineries in foreign countries.
'Saudi Arabia is earning lots of money by doing so," he added.
Iran's top official also thanked Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for general outlines for a 'Resistance Economy'.
Ayatollah Khamenei gave general outlines for a 'Resistance Economy' on Feb. 19, with a main theme of supporting domestic production relying on national resources.
The leader emphasised improving economic productivity, supporting job creation plans and enhancing social welfare indices.
He has also highlighted the need for reforming the national financial system, increasing non-oil exports, implementing the subsidy reform plan, improving consumption patterns and securing sufficient sources for food and drug imports.
For more than a year, Iran has operated under the ideology of the 'Resistance Economy', a concept declared by the Supreme Leader in an August 2012 speech.
In that speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to adopt what he termed a 'Resistance Economy' laying out twelve key 'Resistance Economy' principles, including the view that Iran's production should be developed and increased and that Iranians must be persuaded to shun foreign imports in favour of domestically-made goods.
According to Khamenei, the 'Resistance Economy' would promote economic self-reliance, a strategy that would defeat the efforts of the U.S.-led West to defeat Iran via economic and trade sanctions.
It would therefore ensure Iran's continued defiance of the West and the progress of its 1979 Islamic Revolution, by harnessing the country's 'full potential'. Beyond the economy, it would 'break the illusions' of the U.S. that increasingly harsh sanctions would force Tehran to capitulate over its nuclear programme.
The ideology of the 'Resistance Economy' with its core concepts of self-sufficiency and even sacrifice proclaims that the Islamic Republic can survive and indeed flourish despite U.S. led sanctions.