Tehran, Iran, Nov.19
Trend:
Iranian president’s advisor described the new round of US sanctions to be more complicated and difficult than the previous sanctions against Iran in 2012 to 2014.
“We have always faced the challenges of sanctions. I served at Defense Industry at the time of Iraq-Iran war, when the US sanctions were very serious against us, but authorities had some solutions. Sanctions were imposed on us, but there were solutions to deal with them,” said Akbar Torkan, a top adviser to Hassan Rouhani.
Torkan made the remarks at the 12th International Congress on Strategic Management in Tehran, on November 19.
“Today, if a container is carried by a ship, everyone can observe its contents. Today’s sanctions are more severe and more complicated than previous ones. Our economic growth rate is less than our expectance, and the unemployment rate is too high. There may be sime 3.5 million of unemployed in Iran,” he said.
"Sanctions have put pressure on Iran`s transportation, metals, shipment and oil industries. We have internal restrictions too, such as banking system problems and liquidity which is being spent in non-productive ways, he said.
“The US is striving to harm us. Now, our solution is to see how to use our opportunities,” said Torkan.
He suggested the reduction in energy consumption as the first solution and said that tourism is another way to pass through this situation.