Exports of Iran's industrial products has witnessed a 40 percent growth in the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21- September 21), Rahmatabadi said on Thursday evening.
He said Iran is resolved to further promote non-oil exports, and added that Iranian products are now sold in the markets of 170 countries.
Rahmatabadi pointed out that despite the West's sanctions and economic pressures, Iranian products are among the best commodities in the world.
Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
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.
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Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Safdar Rahmatabadi announced that the country has increased exports of industrial products irrespective of the sanctions imposed by the West on Iran's economy.
News ID 183242
