Iran on Thursday said the West was waging “an economic war” through sanctions, after European diplomats said there was a preliminary agreement for an EU ban of oil from the Islamic republic. “The enemies of the Islamic republic’s regime, with all their tricks, have not been able to chain the nation and now they want to chain the economy,” Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said, in comments carried by the official IRNA news agency.
“These sanctions are an economic war against us,” he said, urging Iranians to defeat them. At the same time, other officials played down the impact of the looming EU ban, saying demand was so high for Iranian oil that they would have no trouble selling it elsewhere.
