First VP: Gov't able to manage Iran without crude revenues

Iran's First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri downplayed the effects of the US sanctions against Tehran, stressing that the government can administer the country even without reliance on oil exports.

"We insisted that the (next year) budget be devised and sent to the parliament in due time to send this message to inside and outside the country that Iran can be managed without reliance on oil revenues," Jahangiri said, addressing a forum in Tehran on Tuesday.

He added that Iran's reliance on oil revenues in the next Iranian year's budget (to start on March 21, 2019) is no more than 25%.

Jahangiri also said that Iran is not a country that can be sanctioned in the transportation sector.

Meantime, he blasted Washington's "lies" that the sanctions have targeted the Iranian government, and said the first group of the society that will be harmed by embargoes is patients, the elderly and children.

On November 5, the US Treasury Department reinstated all sanctions on Iran lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.

EA