🔺 The Islamic Republic’s dream of replacing oil revenues with mines ▪ The Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade of the Islamic Republic has again emphasized replacing mineral revenues with oil and claimed the existence of “the start of a clear and purposeful path” to achieve it. ▪ Over the past years, officials of the Islamic Republic, amid disappointment over the development of oil and gas fields under the shadow of sanctions, have stressed the need to replace the country’s financial resources from oil with those from mines. ▪ The point is that despite sanctions and the sharp decline in Iran’s oil production and exports, Iran’s oil revenues still account for a 24% share in Iran’s gross domestic product, while the share of mines is less than 2%. ▪ Iran’s mining sector has not seen significant growth over the past decades, and mines’ share in the country’s employment is also about one percent.