Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi has once again dismissed Western sanctions against the country as unproductive and reflective of the enemy’s lack of a true insight about the Iranian nation.

Referring to the long-standing sanctions regime against Iran, Rahimi said in a Tuesday speech that the country has been under sanctions by “aggressive powers” for years, adding that the “enemies do not have a factual understanding of the Iranian nation and continue to perceive that by imposing sanctions they can disrupt the progress of this nation."“The sanctions not only fail to impede the progress of the Iranian nation, but they also lay the ground for self-sufficiency and development [in the country],” said the vice president during a meeting with an aerospace industry workgroup.

On the country’s major achievements in recent years, Rahimi further noted that Iranians have persistently demonstrated their capacities and capabilities in various fields and have materialized the motto of ‘we can.’

He also pointed to the existing capacities in Iran’s aerospace industry and expressed optimism that the industry will soon witness a ‘fresh’ leap.

On January 23, the EU agreed to ban oil imports as well as petroleum products from Iran and freeze the assets of Iran’s Central Bank across the EU over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Meanwhile, Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on June 30 that the country is fully prepared to counter EU sanctions in the Iranian oil sector.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.

The US and the EU have imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran to coerce the Islamic Republic into abandoning its nuclear energy program.

Iran has strongly refuted the US-led allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
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News ID 182079