While Iran’s deputy foreign minister for economic affairs announced that Germany is no longer the country’s trading partner, and other European trading partners who had led Iran’s list of countries from whom it imported industrial good giving way to China, Spain and Italy, economic specialists point out that the change has come about not because of government decision-making, but is the result of sanctions imposed on the country.

Alireza Sheik Attar, the foreign ministry deputy declared that Germany was no longer the country’s largest trading partner, replaced by China with $15 billion in trade, which was three times the size of what existed between Iran and Germany in the past.

And without mentioning that China had voted three times in favor of UN Security Council resolutions initiated by the US against Iran he said this change reflected political decisions based on the interests of the country, adding that there was no need for a special decree to reduce economic exchange with countries that have created political problems for the country explaining that the large economic centers naturally drove towards countries that exhibited behavior towards Iran.

Regarding creating trade centers in Europe and America, he said, “There had been no plans to create trade centers in Europe and the US, reserving such centers to be created in Africa and two Asian countries, while even these had not been implemented because of budget constrains and the absence of resources for them.”

This claim by the deputy, although primarily a propaganda tactic aimed at domestic audiences in Iran has resulted in the usual repetition by government spokespersons that, “these sanctions have not had any impact on the fate of the country”, or that, “the vast resources and the global thirst for energy have made the sanctions ineffective.”

But despite these propaganda statements, the government has been busy trying to establish a dialog with the United States at different levels and attempting to resolve its problems with the different Western countries. The recent announcement by the foreign ministry spokesperson quoting Iraqi news sources that Iran’s Foreign Minister Manoutchehr Mottaki may meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has gained special importance. Had such an announcement been made three years ago, the government of the time would have been censured by the Parliament. Today however, economic pressures have forced hardliners to be softer on many issues.