The head of Iran’s Basij organization has urged the country’s leaders to avoid emphasizing the easing of sanctions during nuclear negotiations with the world powers.
Mohammadreza Naghdi spoke at the Friday mass prayers in Tehran, saying the sanctions have led to the discovery of Iran’s “hidden potentials” and he expressed every hope that the sanctions on Iranian oil exports will help Iran end its “dependence on crude sales.”
Meanwhile, speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani said on state television on Wednesday that the country is facing “a fiscal drought” this year and he criticized the sanctions on Iran.
Iran’s oil revenues have reportedly been cut nearly in half since EU and U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors came into effect in July of 2012.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei, has said that the sanctions are “savage and unfair” and has called on the administration to adopt a “resistance economy” to overcome Western pressure.
Today, Mohammadreza Naghdi reiterated Ayatollah Khamenei’s statement about facing the “economic threats” through a fiscal policy of resistance, adding that Basij experts are studying the possible details of such a policy.
Despite Naghdi’s statements, in the past weeks some senior government officials have shown some willingness to enter negotiations with the U.S. in order to ease some of the economic pressure. Ali Larijani was quoted as saying: “No one is against proposals by the U.S.…if they have any rational proposals, they can discuss it with the 5+1 group.”
The nuclear negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 have not yielded any results so far, but both sides have expressed willingness to meet again, although the actual date of such a meeting remains unclear.
