A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official warned on Wednesday that isolation of Iran will be detrimental to the interests of world economy, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Deputy Foreign Minister for economic affairs Alireza Sheikh Attar made the remarks to the press when asked to comment on possible UN sanctions against Tehran on the sidelines of the first ministerial meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

"It is impossible to isolate Iran in the world of today, given its high potentials and capacity," Attar was quoted as saying.

He said that the capacity of Iran's market for the six nations - - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- in Tehran's nuclear issue amounts to 40 billion U.S. dollars.

Attar warned that as Iran is the second largest crude oil producer among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), any problem in oil production will disrupt the balance of world's oil market.

Asked about Iran's reaction in case of sanctions against it, Attar said that the current draft of UN Security Council resolution does not propose a total sanction, but rather limitations concerning nuclear technology and ballistic missiles.

"In practice, Iran has never benefited from foreign nuclear products and services," he claimed.

The United States has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council on the grounds that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapons program in the garb of a civilian use program.

However, Iran has said that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, while voicing hope for talks with Europe, Russia, China and the United States and vowing not to suspend nuclear work as prerequisite for such talks.

Source: Xinhua