“Iran's economy is a big economy, it is ranked 18th in the world according to international economic institutions,” Es’hagh Jahangiri said at a gathering of Iranian ambassadors and heads of Iran’s diplomatic missions abroad on Tuesday.
“Iran has about $200 billion worth of trade transactions with the world, and its economy is not going to be easily isolated from the world economy,” Jahangiri added.
He went on to say that Iran is a country that not only has the smallest foreign debt in the world, but it has also about $100 billion assets outside the country.
He maintained Iran's internal debt is not comparable with that of other countries, for example, in Japan the internal debts comprise 200 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), but Iran’s internal debts are a negligible amount in comparison, he added.
He also said that the value of government assets is several times the liquidity in its economy and if it wants to sell part of these assets it can collect a large part of the existing liquidity in the market.
Meanwhile, first vice president, Eshagh Jahangiri, has stressed that all countries need Iran's crude oil, arguing that stopping Iran's oil exports altogether is impossible , and that Tehran can always find new ways of selling its crude.
According to an Iran Press report, speaking at a gathering of foreign businessmen, industrialists and managers who live in Iran, first vice president, Eshagh Jahangiri said: "Iran's foreign policy is based on constructive interaction and trade with the rest of the world, solving disputes and crises in the Middle East, and elsewhere in the world through dialogue and political talks.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian vice president ridiculed the United States’ attempts to instigate Iranian people against their government through economic pressures, saying that the Iranian people will never accept to side with a foreign country to damage their own country and government.
He also noted that Iran has good relations with its neighbours and the US attempts to separate them from Iran will not succeed.
Meanwhile, he acknowledged that parts of the society in lower and middle classes are facing economic difficulties, dismissing the US government’s claims that its sanctions are not targeting the Iranian people.
