TEHRAN - Some 2,000 traders and businessmen from 85 different countries are participating in the 6th International Export Potential Exhibition of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran Expo 2024) which kicked off in Tehran on Saturday.

Addressing the opening ceremony, President Ebrahim Raisi described sanctions as a symbol of oppression.

Sanctions are a kind of war, but not a military one, a war that deprives a nation of what it can achieve, he said.

In the battle of wills, the Iranians decided to overcome the sanctions by trusting in God and relying on domestic capabilities, he said, adding that the spokesman of the White House announced that the maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic had shamefully failed.

The Iran Expo 2024 shows that Iran is invulnerable to sanctions and that sanctions have never been successful against this country, he stressed.

According to the Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Mehdi Zeyghami over 400 companies are showcasing their trade capacities in this event, IRNA reported.

“The goal of this exhibition is to increase the country’s exports by two billion euros in a certain period after the exhibition,” Zeyghami said.

Also speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Abbas Aliabadi said Iran is now one of the economic and industrial hubs of the region despite the sanctions.

Aliabadi put the country’s foreign trade value at more than $153 billion, noting that one-third of the mentioned figure is related to non-oil exports.

The minister noted that neighboring countries, African nations, as well as Islamic and friendly countries are Iran’s priority in developing relations and economic cooperation.

“We are a member of the global trade watchdog and by participating in regional and international agreements, we have a constructive interaction with many countries,” he stressed.

The first edition of the Iran Expo was held in 2013.

This exhibition will cover seven major groups of commodities including food industries, agriculture and fisheries, handwoven carpets, handicrafts and tourism, medicine, medical equipment and chemical products, the construction industry, technical and engineering services, and also the petrochemical group.

Promoting trade and economic relations with other countries, booming production, propelling the business environment of the private sector to the international arena, and creating a new trade and economic discourse with various countries have been cited as the main aims of holding the exhibition.

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