We can expect more actions against the dollar if Bush stays with his current course. A top Iranian official recently cited the US trade deficit and dependence on foreign oil as major US economic weaknesses.
merica's weak Spots
TEHRAN -- Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani here Friday recounted
U.S. weak spots, including its worsening economic situation, saying
Washington's 'adventurism' in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attack
was rooted in that country's internal problems.
"America's moves are arising from its weakness.
Let's not make a horrendous ogre out of America to frighten people in vain," he
told worshipers at the weekly Friday prayers.
"America's adventurism is not rooted in the September 11 event; it is rather
related to that country's fundamental problems at home.
Thus, the September incident is only a pretext for the U.S. to achieve its goals,"
Rafsanjani said.
Tehran and Washington have held no diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution, when the Students Following the Line of Imam captured the
American embassy, known as the 'den of spies', in Tehran.
George W. Bush has branded Iran as part of an 'axis of evil' along with North
Korea and Iraq for allegedly trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
"Some people must not think that we can cooperate with America," Rafsanjani,
who is the chairman of the arbitrative Expediency Council, said.
"According to statistics, America registered a 450-billion-dollar deficit in its trade
balance only in 2000 and its foreign debts have reached 2,600 billion dollars
over recent years," he said.
"In this light, America each day runs into a debt of 1.25 billion dollars because of
its trade deficit," the Iranian official said. Rafsanjani went on by citing U.S.
overdependence on oil imports, saying that "America consumes 20 million
barrels of oil daily, amounting to seven billion barrels in a year."
"Sixty-seven percent of this figure is imported and the rest is produced in
America," he added.
"If this is the situation in America as cited by that country's scientists, U.S.
provocations around the world are understandable," the cleric said. |
