Tehran, Iran, Oct.12
Trend:
Sanctions are like a double-edged sword, which hurts both sides, former Iran`s minister of commerce and a founding member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hasam Abedi Jafari, told Trend.
Referring to the challenges facing the Iranian economy he said the country is facing two challenges, the first one is related to the structure of the Iranian economy.
"Of course, we resolved some of these problems, but part of it has been plaguing Iran's economy. These problems include the dependence of the economy on oil," Jafari said.
"The second set of challenges is related to external factors, such as sanctions," he said. “For example, The U.S. wants Iran's oil exports to drop to zero to reduce the country's foreign exchange earnings.”
"Fortunately, the records for the decades of sanctions indicate that more than 64% of the sanctions against a particular country have failed. This means that the sanction is like a double-edged sword,” he said.
On November 4, a second batch of potentially more damaging sanctions will be re-imposed on Iran's oil and shipping sectors as well as its central bank. The US has asked buyers of Iranian oil to cut imports to zero starting in November.
“Iran’s top oil customers such as India and China are not expected to cut their Iranian purchases,” Abedi Jafari said.