"Sanctions imposed against Iran's oil industry have failed to undermine the Iranian economy, and on the contrary, have reduced Tehran's dependence on oil revenues," Nasser Soudani said on Saturday.
He pointed to the opportunity that sanctions provided Iran with in a bid to become independent, and said, "Iran oil industry by utilizing domestic workforce and experts has been able to stand on its own feet in all stages of production, extraction, development and sale of petroleum products."
Earlier this month, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi announced preparedness of Iran's oil industry to confront the western sanctions, and said that the enemies' economic war against Iran will be fruitless.
Qassemi said that remarkable progress made in the country's oil industry indicated that sanctions imposed by enemies against the country have been ineffective.
He noted that the main losers of banning Iran's oil were the western states and the hegemonic system due to their difficult economic situations.
The economic situation in western states is worsening day by day due to the anti-Iran sanctions, Qassemi said.
He added that the Iranian society was well prepared to foil enemies' restrictions thanks to the guidelines of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
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 and the western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.
Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.
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A senior Iranian legislator underlined the ineffectiveness of the US-led western sanctions against Iran and its scientific progress, and said that the country has turned the West's pressures and embargos into an opportunity.
News ID 184470
