Supreme Leader: Economic Jihad, nation's effective weapon against enemy's sanctions

Iranian nation, including officials and people, need to spend hard efforts, think wisely, and act more rapidly in a bid to meet the objectives of the Country’s Twenty Year Perspective Documents and to counter the international sanctions, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneie said in a meeting with the top public and private sector economic activists of the country, IRNA reported.

"The enemy, resorting to the ineffective weapon of sanctions, has aimed at beating the Iranian nation and the Islamic system, but that objective out of their animosity will remain ineffective thanks to the economic Jihad of the officials and the people, and the great Iranian nation would full of hope achieve its deserved position," Khameneie told.

On Wednesday, public and private sector activists, managers of economic, industrial, agricultural, banking, IT sectors, and representatives of trade syndicates in a meeting with Supreme Leader Wednesday exchanged viewpoints on economic issues .

The information website of the Supreme Leader’s Office reported that the 18 economic activists were present at the session that lasted over three hours.

"At the present sensitive point of time, this meeting is a symbolic move aimed at showing the system’s great attention to the economic matter, and highlighting the country’s economic dynamism and advancement," the Leader told.

He further emphasized, "The message of our meeting today is the need for paying more and greater attention by the officials and the activists in economic fields, as well as the entire people, to the economic issue."

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said that the major objective of imposing sanctions against Iran is paralyzing the country’s economy, reiterating, "The main factor in these sanctions is not our nuclear energy, because the sanctions began 32 years ago when there was no mention of the nuclear issue in the country."

Ayatollah Khameneie noted that the Iranian nation and the country’s officials must wisely counter the sanctions, adding, "If the sanctions were effective and of any use for the enemies, the oppressors would have achieved their objectives during the first years after the victory of the revolution, not today that the nation and the system have gradually become immune in countering the sanctions."

Iran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear activities has resulted in resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 2010, as well as additional unilateral sanctions approved by the U.S. Congress and the foreign ministers of all EU countries, which were primarily directed against the banking, financial and energy sectors of Iran.

Restrictions imposed by the EU include the ban on the sale of equipment, technologies and services to Iran's energy sector which is a major source of revenue for the Iranian regime; the same measure refers to the refining industry.

Last September, expanded U.S. sanctions on Iran there have prompted four of Europe’s five biggest oil companies - Total, Statoil, Eni and the RD/Shell - to stop investing in Iran. Later, in October, Inpex, Japan’s top oil explorer, announces withdrawal from Iran’s Azadegan oil field project to avoid U.S. sanctions.


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