An Iranian lawmaker renewed the country's earlier threat about stopping crude exports to the outside world if the western powers intensify sanctions against Tehran.

Member of the Iranian parliament's Energy Committee Mousa Ahmadi said if the western countries continue their hostility towards Iran, the Islamic Republic will halt crude exports.

"It is certain that they (countries imposing sanctions on Iran) will face problems due to this measure because as the cold season approaches they will need Iran's gas and oil," the Iranian lawmaker added.

"When other countries find themselves at loss due to this measure, their public opinion will be mobilized against them (Western countries) and an important movement will take shape against them," Ahmadi predicted.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed the West's demand as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries.
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News ID 183182