Iran says EU to lose from sanctions: interview
VIENNA (AFP) — Iran warned the EU it would lose out from its new sanctions aiming to pressure Tehran over its sensitive nuclear programme, in comments by the deputy Iranian foreign minister to be published Wednesday.
"Who is going to lose? The Europeans," said the minister, Mahdi Safari, quoted in an interview in the Austrian newspaper Die Presse.
"If they want to stop doing business, no problem. We have gas and oil resources that the whole world wants to buy from us."
EU nations on Monday agreed new sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme, notably banning the country's largest bank, Bank Melli, from operating in Europe.
"We are going to withdraw our money and invest it elsewhere," Safari warned in the interview, however.
"If we withdraw 100 billion dollars from European banks, that will of course prompt a lack of money and have consequences for the world economy."
The sanctions, adopted by EU ministers, also added 20 individuals and 15 organisations to the union's blacklists imposing visa bans and asset freezes.
The EU move, along with a string of UN sanctions against Iran adopted since 2006, aims at persuading it to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which the international community fears are part of a nuclear weapons programme.
Tehran insists it wants atomic energy only for a growing population whose fossil fuels will eventually run out.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran on June 14 to present a cooperation offer to Iran on behalf of the six major countries negotiating with it on the issue -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
The proposal offers Iran technological incentives in exchange for it suspending the sensitive process of uranium enrichment.
Safari said Iran was examining the proposal and had found there was some "common ground" between the two negotiating sides.
