Tehran, Iran, Oct. 8
Trend:
Iran never had a plan for a non-oil economy, on the contrary it increased its dependence on oil, Secretary of the Federation of Iranian Energy Export Industries Hamid Reza Salehi told Trend.
"With our experience in oil sanctions, there is no way to reduce oil exports to less than a million barrels, because Iran has always had its own traditional customers. Now the United States has been able to stop some of our customers from buying oil," Salehi said.
US sanctions targeting Iran's crude oil exports come into force November 4, with Washington ratcheting up the pressure on governments and companies around the world to slash their Iranian oil imports to zero.
“Considering that we are in the economic war, the opposing party is using all the power to identify the ways of selling oil, so we must also think of the necessary preparations to not reduce the income of Iran. We have to think of an economy without oil.”
“Unfortunately, none of the governments in Iran has had a plan for a non-oil economy, on the contrary they increased their dependence on oil. As we see during Mahmood Amadinejad's presidency, government with its highest oil revenues experienced a negative economic growth."
“Some countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are doing their best to show that they have the ability to replace Iranian oil,” he said. "But it should not be forgotten that replacing Iran's oil is not an easy task.”