Iran uses trade to punish unfriendly countries

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 20 – Iran has linked its international trade ties to countries’ political cooperation with Tehran, a senior official in the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, a semi-official daily reported on Thursday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 20 – Iran has linked its international trade ties to countries’ political cooperation with Tehran, a senior official in the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, a semi-official daily reported on Thursday.

“Political relations and positions definitely effect economic relations and issues”, Gholam-Hossein Elham, the President’s Chief of Staff, was quoted as saying by the hard-line daily Kayhan.

The comments came a day after British and South Korean officials confirmed that Tehran had imposed a ban on their countries’ goods in an apparent response to the two states’ support for a resolution censuring the Islamic Republic at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Iran’s political, economic, and cultural relations with other counties are interlinked and have an effect on each other”, Elham said.

“Political relations and stances definitely effect economic issues”, the top presidential aide said, adding that all government departments would act uniformly in their relations.

In explicit wording, Elham said that Iran’s “economic relations with other countries is based on their political weighing”.