Iran says it is selling the oil it needs to, despite U.S. pressure
selling the oil it needs to, despite U.S. pressure
Iran said on Tuesday it had so far been able to sell as much oil as it needs despite U.S. pressure, but it urged European countries opposed to U.S. sanctions to do more to shield Iran, as Russia and Turkey also voiced their objections.
The United States on Monday restored sanctions targeting Iran’s oil, banking and transport sectors and threatened more action to stop what Washington called its “outlaw” policies – steps that Tehran called economic warfare and vowed to defy.
The measures are part of a wider effort by U.S. President Donald Trump to curb Tehran’s missile and nuclear programs and diminish the Islamic Republic’s influence in the Middle East, notably its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
Trump is targeting Iran’s main source of revenue – its oil exports – as well as its financial sector, essentially making 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries off-limits to foreign banks, on pain of losing access to the U.S. financial system.
“The Americans constantly said they would reduce the sale of Iran’s oil to zero but I have to say that, so far, we have been able to sell our required amounts of oil,” Tasnim news agency quoted Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri as saying.
“The Americans, with the help of propaganda, don’t see the realities.”
EXPORTS DOWN
Industry estimates suggest Iran’s oil exports have in fact fallen by 40-60 percent since Trump said in May that he would reimpose sanctions, but 180-day exemptions for Iran’s biggest oil clients could mean they rise again after November.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey, one of those countries, would not abide by the sanctions, which he said were “aimed at unbalancing the world”.
Jahangiri said he had spoken to a handful of managers from companies on the U.S. sanctions list, and that some had already formulated plans on how to deal with the measures.
However, Iran’s oil minister wrote to OPEC’s secretary general calling for two committees that monitor an output deal with non-OPEC countries to be scrapped, accusing them of siding with the United States.
The head of Iran’s central bank, Abdolnasser Hemmati, said Iranian banks should use their previous experience dealing with sanctions to support the foreign trade process and financial transfers”, according to the state news agency, IRNA.
–
Read More: Reuters
—
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights