Visiting China last week, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic are aimed at crippling the emerging economic powers across Asia.
“One of the West’s objectives in imposing sanctions on Iran is to hamper the economic growth of the emerging economies in Asia, by denying them energy sources in the long-term and in full security from a country like Iran,” said Mehman-Parast in a Tuesday meeting with the secretary general of the Chinese Journalists Union, John Xui Shoun, in Beijing.
“The US is concerned over the fact that China and some Asian countries are making progress and they [the Americans] know that if this process continues, countries like China, India and other Asian states will take control of the global economy,” he said.
Mehman-Parast pointed out that by imposing sanctions on Iran, the West seeks to force the Asian countries to meet their energy requirements under short-term contracts with different suppliers and as a result create disruption in their economic progress.
Actually, such countries as Iraq and Saudi Arabia are offering long-term contracts.
The Iranian diplomat pointed out that if a country is required to change its energy suppliers on a regular basis, it will not enjoy a stable economic growth. But China, like many countries, shifts the volume of its purchases from different suppliers up and down every month.
Mehman-Parast said that if Iran discovers no new energy resources, the country’s oil and gas resources will still meet Iran’s export goals for 85 years and 150 years respectively, and this highlights the importance of Iran as a reliable energy hub for the Asian economy.
There was no word on the Chinee reaction to all this.
