We have various methods devised to foil banking sanctions, says Iranian spokesman Mehmanparast

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said various methods have been devised to foil sanctions against Iran's banking.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said that all organizations are mobilizing efforts to minimize the impact of the sanctions.

Asked to comment on the Iranian nuclear talks with the 5+1, he pointed to four rounds of talks held between Iran and the West during the past Iranian year (to end March 20, 2013) with two other ones to commence soon in Istanbul and Almaty.

He said the negotiations held prior to Almaty meetings was not successful because the West's demands put forward during the talks failed to match those of Iran, and therefore no mutual understanding was made between the two sides.

He reiterated that they also had some illogical demands while their proposals killed any chances of the continuing negotiations.

Mehmanparast said what actually happened in Kazakhstan was that the 5+1 realized that the policy of exerting pressures on Iran was not a proper way to force Tehran to forsake its rights.

They understood that such an attitude will have no constructive impacts for cooperation, he added.

However, he noted, in Almaty this time, the 5+1 demand stood in no contrast with Iran’s principled basic rights.

The spokesman further expressed his views on the second term in office of the US President Barack Obama and pointed to the new structure of the security team assisting him. He added that a fresh literature is clearly dominating issues related to Iran.

He said President Obama’s motto of "change" gave rise to great expectations in the public opinion both in and out of the US regarding some transformations in Tehran-Washington relations.

The issue disillusioned the public opinion about the nature of Obama’s motto because they saw that during the first round of his presidency political pressures and sanctions against Iran expanded.

During the same time, he continued, the biggest anti-Iran terrorist grouplet was also crossed out from the US terrorist list and members of the group were given more freedom for their activities within the US soil.

Mehmanparast said all these have made the world public opinion look forward for real changes both in behavior and attitude of the US administration towards Iran.

He advised the US officials not to lose this fresh chance to win trust of the public opinion.

He said changing the present atmosphere dominating Iran-US relations calls for a tangible action.

Turning to fresh round of sanctions against Iran which was termed as "paralyzing" by the US and its European allies, the spokesman described it as an inhuman, illegal and illogical act against the Iranian nation.

He said though they claimed that the sanctions were targeting the Iranian government, it became clear in practice that they were in fact targeting the nation in a way that even the engineers of the sanctions confessed that they were seeking to put pressures on the ordinary Iranians to force them to press the government in turn to change its policies.

However, he noted, the Iranian nation confronted the sanctions and tried to turn the challenge into a chance.

He referred to sanctions on Iran’s export of oil, gas and petrochemical productions and also on its banking system and said during the process Iran’s foreign relations apparatus managed to coordinate efforts of all organizations to overcome the sanctions by designing activities free of oil incomes.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said on Saturday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is sustainable supplier of energy to the European states in light of its number one status possessing oil and gas reserves.

He told IRNA that the European states need Iranian oil supply for its progress and Iran is willing to develop economic cooperation with the European governments.

"So, we have always been after having the best form of relations with Europe," he added.

Europe could always be one of the priorities of Iran's foreign policy, Mehmanparast said.

He said that certain European countries have been restricting their relations with Iran, because they are following the US lead something which jeopardizes interests of all European countries.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mehmanparast said European Union members enjoy immense capacities and due to their economies dependence on the US, they sustained many damages during the last financial crisis.

He said that currently there are social and economic crises in Europe as some of the countries risk full bankruptcy and certain other countries too have been experiencing big social crises such as unemployment caused by the economic crisis.

Noting that Iran enjoys extremely strategic geographic condition and lies on the intersection of the North-South-East-West corridor, Mehmanparast said the Islamic Republic of Iran can be a very suitable partner for the European states.

"Iran is a country ranking the second in terms of gas reserves and fourth in terms of oil reserves and on the whole Iran is number one worldwide in terms of both oil and gas."

Commenting on Iran's ties with the neighbors, Mehmanparast said, "To benefit from capacities of cooperation in the region, we should never limit ourselves to a specific country. Our national interest necessitates expanding relations with many countries. Having good relations with a neighbor does not mean harming our relations with another neighbor. Within framework of mutual cooperation, many projections can be handled, while putting on agenda trilateral or regional cooperation. Such regional cooperation would enable countering crises and making our region less vulnerable to international crises, either the economic crises or security ones."

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