And even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had once admitted that the sanctions were not solely responsible for internal cash crisis blighting Iran, the paper said.
In a scathing indictment of the regime, Bahar wrote: “In the last few months, the phrase ‘sanction’ has often been heard in the economic circles. Government ministers have also been heard saying the economic problems are a result of the sanctions.
“However, some time ago, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acknowledged that the imposed sanctions are irrelevant and have no effect on Iran’s economy.
“But now, he and his economy ministers are blaming sanctions for tying Iran’s economy in knots.
“Yet there can be no doubt that these sanctions are not to blame. If we had dynamic, capable and intellectual management of the country’s economy, the sanctions would be irrelevant. They have simply become an excuse for our economic problems.”
The paper added: “If you don’t believe this, look at how the economy ministers have reacted to the sanctions over the last few years. You’ll find that that prior to the sanctions, economic experts had predicted that the government’s economic program would fail. In June 2007, a group of 57 economic experts had perfectly predicted the state of Iran’s economy today.
“Scrutinizing the economic policies of Ahmadinejad’s government, they concluded that due to strange policies practised, people who start to become under economic pressure. It seems that the sanctions have only had the function of increasing the speed of the collapse.
“Therefore, it is flawed economic policies and not the sanctions that are responsible for the state of the country. How could 700 to 800 billion dollars be injected into the economy over eight years, and yet we still find ourselves in this state?”