Iran: Ouch! Those sanctions do hurt!

Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hameneh speaks out about the sanctions - don't look for him to be oil minister for long....

Iran admitted on Tuesday that international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear programme were harming its ability to invest in oil infrastructure, the backbone of its economy.

"The problems that they have made for banks have troubled financing of some projects," Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh told the official IRNA news agency. He said that the government was attempting to use its own resources, built up from windfall receipts resulting from the high world oil prices of recent years, to make up for the shortfalls in foreign investment.

Hamaneh's admission contrasted with comments by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday in which he insisted that Iran was unfazed by the prospect of further sanctions. "They cannot hurt us, not that they don't want to but because they are incapable of doing do as they are in a difficult situation," he said.

In other Iranian oil related news:

Mortar aimed at gas station in Tehran fails.

80 arrested in fuel protests.

Hugo to the rescue. Venezuela to sell Iran some gas.