‘Iran has lived with sanctions for decades’

The Islamic Republic has always announced its readiness for the continuation of negotiations but the EU has been hit by a crisis in its decision-making, AVA Diplomatic reports.Head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Iran has lived with sanctions since the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution, but the country has turned these restrictions into opportunities for technological and scientific progress.

In a Sunday meeting with Danish Ambassador to Tehran Anders Christian Hougaard, Alaeddin Boroujerdi pointed to the recent EU sanctions against Iran and said lack of precise intelligence on and comprehensive analysis of the realities of the Islamic Republic has led the bloc gone astray.”

Boroujerdi, who heads Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, further stressed that dialogue between Iran and the European Union is the only way to clear up misunderstandings between the two parties.

“The Islamic Republic has always announced its readiness for the continuation of negotiations but the EU has been hit by a crisis in its decision-making.”

EU diplomats announced on Friday that the bloc’s 27 member states had agreed on the major mechanisms of an agreement to impose sanctions against Iran’s telecommunications sector.

The new EU agenda comes in the wake of the bloc’s January 23 agreement to ban oil imports from Tehran, freeze the assets of the Central Bank of Iran across the EU, and ban sales of grains, diamonds, gold, and other precious metals to the country.

The EU sanctions followed shortly after US President Barack Obama signed into law fresh unilateral economic sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran on New Year’s Eve in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution. The bill ultimately takes aim at Iran’s oil revenue.

The United States, Israel and some of their European allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for the imposition of four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and a series of unilateral embargoes against the Islamic Republic.

Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.