"With the measures devised by the Iranian diplomatic apparatus, from today we will witness the gradual removal of the sanctions," Salehi said on Sunday, Islamic republic news agency reported.
"The enemy claimed last year that crippling sanctions against Iran were on their way; however, they themselves have admitted that sanctions have not had much impact in Iran."
"If the enemy has spent $100 to impose sanctions on Iran, it has not benefitted and reaped even $10 in return," the minister added.
Political observers believe that the West has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.
Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the NPT would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West's hardline stance on Tehran.
Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. The United States and the European Union have ratcheted up their sanctions on Iran this year to force it to curb its nuclear program.
Iranian officials have always shrugged off the sanctions, saying that pressures make them strong and reinvigorate their resolve to further move towards self-sufficiency.
