Tehran, Dec 12 A senior Iranian official has said that foreign sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic are expected to continue for at least four to five years affecting Tehran's trade for several years.
"It is completely clear that, whether (US President-elect Joe) Biden is ratified or (US President Donald) Trump can reverse the situation at the US Supreme Court, the sanctions will continue for another four or five years," Xinhua news agency quoted Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, as saying on Friday.
Commenting on the draft budget bill for the next Iranian year starting on March 21, 2021, Rezaei, also a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said both Trump and Biden intend to continue using economic sanctions to "pressure the Iranian people".
The budget should be thus designed according to the Resistance Economy doctrine and on the basis of Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution, he said.
Article 44 was reinterpreted in 2005 by the Expediency Discernment Council and Iran's Supreme Leader to allow for a transfer of state companies to the private sector.
"We expect Parliament to amend the budget bill, applying two factors: attracting the people's participation in investments and eliminating poverty," Rezaei, also a former chief of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, added.
Defending the draft budget bill submitted to Parliament on December 2, President Hassan Rouhani had said on Wednesday that the projected sale of 2.3 million barrels of oil per day for the next Iranian year was "not based on whether Iran will or will not hold talks or reach an agreement with other countries".
The conditions in Iran's oil production and sales will be "completely different" in 2021 from 2020 and 2019, Rouhani noted.
( With inputs from IANS )
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