Influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Saturday, July 28, that Iran would eventually recover its assets frozen in the United States. "Inshallah (if it is God's will), we will recover our assets and the interest," said Rafsanjani, a prominent conservative who now heads the Expediency Council, a powerful official arbitration and strategic body.
Rafsanjani, whose comments were reported on radio, also criticized a recent decision by the US House of Representatives to extend for five years a 1996 sanctions order that curbs foreign investment in the country's petroleum and gas industries.
"What is notable is that the renewal of the sanctions came the same day as the Senate approved three billion dollars in aid to the Zionist regime," added the former head of state.
The United States cut off relations with Iran in 1980 after a hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran, and imposed an oil embargo on the country in 1995, although it relaxed controls over other products last year.
Tehran regularly demands that Washington ends its freeze on Iranian assets in US banks, estimated here at more than $10 billion. ― (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
