Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 26/ Trend M. Moezzi /
Iran does not need to sell oil to Europe and new sanctions against it will not keep the country from improvement, Mehr News Agency quoted the Iranian president as saying.
The Western actions are created to derail Iran's progress and development, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a visit to a copper factory in the province of Kerman.
In a warning to Persian Gulf countries, the president said that they should understand that they are useful only to the U.S. because they have oil. He warned them that they were in danger of becoming the Western playthings.
The West insists that it does not want sanctions to harm the Iranian people but the sanctions hurt the people, rather than the government, the Iranian president said.
Boycotting Iran's central bank will have no effect on Iran either because only $24 billion of Iran's $200 billion a year in business is done with Europe, he added.
The president's comments were in response to EU foreign ministers' January 23 agreement to stop buying oil from Iran in six months. When current oil contracts for Iran's oil expire, about 27 countries that make up the EU can not sign new ones. The new sanctions will also freeze some of the Iranian Central Bank's assets.