Publish Date: 13 December 2012 - 11:18

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday categorically rejected the US claims that the western sanctions against Iran have crippled the country's economy.

"Americans imagined that Iran's economy will be crippled through sanctions after a while, but this did not happen," Larijani said.

"Now they have made use of the sanctions in, as they say, the field of public diplomacy, but if we can grow national production, we will be able to dissuade them" from continuing the sanctions policy in the upcoming talks with the world powers, he said.

Iranian officials on various occasions have reiterated that the US-led western sanctions on the country have influenced Iran's economy positively and failed to have a crippling effect on the its economy.

Early December, Vice-Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard underlined the positive outcomes of sanctions and pressures on Iranian economy and oil sector, saying that pressures and embargos pave the way for Iran to end its dependence in oil revenues.

"Our enemies helped us today and we managed to cut Iran's dependence on oil revenues in a short time which is a great development in the country's economy," Aboutorabi said at that time, addressing a meeting in the holy city of Mashhad.

"One of the problems that we were facing for a century was reliance on oil revenues," he added.

Many Iranian officials believe that the West's ban on Iranian oil supplies will help Iranian economy end its dependence on oil revenues.
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