Tehran (IP) - The First Vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri praised Iran's exporters, saying both those exporters who won prizes on Monday and those who didn't, played a crucial role in Iran's economy, performing a vital task.

Iran PressIran news: Addressing America's leadership, Eshaq Jahangiri said on Monday at the ceremony of the 23rd National Day of Exports at Tehran International Conference Hall that the Trump administration has said openly that it wants to apply maximum sanctions pressure on Iran, and it wants to inflict maximum pain on the Iranian people.

The First Vice President said: "Even Iran's friends, countries who are our principal trading partners, are unwilling to buy our oil, or do so very reluctantly, because they are afraid of the Americans."

"The Americans are spearheading a massive media campaign, a massive media war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under such circumstances, where America is threatening to sanction any country which does business with Iran, I take my hat off to all those who are exporting Iranian-manufactured goods and services today. I really admire all those (Iranian) businessmen who export Iranian-made goods and services abroad. Indeed they are our frontline soldiers in a fully-fledged economic war, and they have done a marvelous job and they are truly worthy of our praise," Jahangiri added.

In further comments, Jahangiri said: "After we signed the JCPOA, the Americans broke all their agreements under the pretext of changing their president. With their withdrawal from JCPOA, they put unprecedented pressure on the Iranian people. They clearly said we would inflict the most pain on Iranian society. They also said that they would begin an economic war against the Iranian nation."

He further noted: "They believed that as a result of this economic war, the Iranian economy would collapse. They imposed every kind of economic sanctions against Islamic Iran; however, today we can announce to exporters that we could stand on our feet. We are definitely in trouble, but we are on our feet. Americans want to humiliate Iran. The Saudis and Israelis also want to humiliate Iran. But during this eight-month period, we have experienced more than 16% export growth."

Jahangiri also criticized the fact that Iran's exports are fragmented. He said: "The Russian president, Vladimir Putin recently told us that Russia is a major consumer of agricultural produce and Moscow imports a lot of foodstuffs from Europe and Turkey. Putin told us that Russia wants to import agricultural produce and foodstuffs from Iran, but we received a written complaint from Russian officials that they couldn't find any Iranian company which could export 100000 tonnes of oranges to Russia. Most Iranian exporters said they could only export about 5000 tonnes or 2000 tonnes of oranges to Russia."  

In further remarks, Jahangiri said it is important that we give people hope about the future of this country. In the upcoming parliamentary elections this February, the people will decide and they will elect their representatives to the parliament (Majlis).

 211/207 

Read more:

We will give harsh response if regional countries are behind riots

Top exporters honored in the national day of exports