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TEHRAN-Iran's economy minister played down on Sunday reports Tehran was withdrawing assets from Europe in the face of tightening sanctions over its nuclear programme.Hossein Samsami, acting economy minister, also said the sanctions were not having a major impact on the economy of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter.Asked whether it was true that Iran was moving money from European banks, he told state radio, without giving details: "No, it is as yet not serious."An Iranian weekly this month said Iran had withdrawn $75 billion (38 billion pounds) from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over its disputed atomic plans.The Shahrvand-e Emrooz weekly quoted Mohsen Talai, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, as saying that a part of Iran's assets in European banks had been converted to gold and shares and another part transferred to Asian banks.The Etemad-e Melli newspaper had earlier carried a similar report without giving any figures.Iran's refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work which the United States and others suspect is aimed at making bombs has drawn three rounds of United Nations sanctions since 2006.Western powers have warned the Islamic Republic of further punitive measures if it rejects an offer of economic and other incentives and presses ahead with uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military uses.Iran has ruled out halting activities which it says are solely aimed at generating electricity.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
