A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official warned on Wednesday that
isolation of Iran will be detrimental to the interests of world economy, the
official IRNA news agency reported.
Deputy Foreign Minister for economic affairs Alireza Sheikh Attar made the
remarks to the press when asked to comment on possible UN sanctions against
Tehran on the sidelines of the first ministerial meeting of the Economic
Cooperation Organization (ECO).
"It is impossible to isolate Iran in the world of today, given its high
potentials and capacity," Attar was quoted as saying.
He said that the capacity of Iran's market for the six nations -- Britain,
China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States --in Tehran's nuclear issue
amounts to 40 billion U.S. dollars.
Attar warned that as Iran is the second largest crude oil producer among
members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), any problem
in oil production will disrupt the balance of world's oil market.
Asked about Iran's reaction in case of sanctions against it, Attar said that
the current draft of UN Security Council resolution does not propose a total
sanction, but rather limitations concerning nuclear technology and ballistic
missiles.
"In practice, Iran has never benefited from foreign nuclear products and
services," he claimed.
The United States has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iran through the UN
Security Council on the grounds that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapons
program in the garb of a civilian use program.
However, Iran has said that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes,
while voicing hope for talks with Europe, Russia, China and the United States
and vowing not to suspend nuclear work as prerequisite for such talks.