Speaker: Iran Reducing Dependence on Oil Revenues

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said that his country has been able to decrease dependence on oil revenues, stressing the US inability to reduce Iran's crude sales.

"They thought that they can zero our oil exports and declared it but could they do it? They said that they wanted to zero down our oil exports in October but they could not. We passed the tests and challenges," Larijani said in an interview with the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel on Saturday.

He added that Iran which exported 4mln barrels of oil 40 years ago during Pahlavi era when its population was 30mln, but now exports 2mln barrels of crude daily with a population of 80 million.

"We have reduced dependence on oil revenues and it is one of the policies that we are pursuing," Larijani said.

In relevant remarks late last month, Iran’s Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand said the country’s trade balance had improved in the last 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21, 2018), boasting that the plots to cut the country’s oil revenues to zero had failed.

Dejpasand said that Iran’s non-oil exports had increased over the past ten months up to January 20 and 85 percent of its imports pertain to raw materials.

Addressing a gathering of Hormozgan province’s business persons and investors, the minister said the enemies were unable to lower Iran’s oil exports down to zero, as the oil sales continue as before.

Stressing the need for using capacities of the free zones, he added that profits from economic progress in the zones should be injected to the country’s economy.

Referring to the country’s positive trade balance of 900 million dollars in the current Iranian calendar year, he said, “This has not taken place because of a decline in imports; rather due to increase in exports and this is very meaningful.”

source: FARS News Agency