NOURNEWS - Iran’s president says despite the economic war launched by the administration of US President Donald Trump against Tehran, Washington has failed in its efforts to shrink the Islamic Republic’s oil exports to zero.
Addressing an official meeting on Sunday, Hassan Rouhani noted that the economic war has caused many problems for the Iranian oil and petrochemical exports, but “Trump’s wish for shrinking Iran’s oil exports to zero never came true.”
Trump, a hawkish critic of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), unilaterally withdrew Washington from the agreement in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.
Following its much-criticized exit, Washington has been attempting to prevent the remaining signatories from abiding by their commitments and thus kill the historic agreement, which is widely viewed as a fruit of international diplomacy.
On October 26, the US administration imposed a fresh round of sanctions on a number of Iranian individuals and entities affiliated with the Islamic Republic’s oil sector, including Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh.
The Iranian petroleum minister said on November 9 that the latest wave of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, which targets the oil sector, has no practical effect and stems from Washington’s grudge toward Tehran.
Zanganeh said, “In his final days at the White House, Mr. Trump imposed sanctions on a number of high-ranking oil sector officials of Iran under the pretext of their alleged support for terrorism.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani emphasized the necessity of working to up the Iranian oil output, saying, “Due to sanctions imposed on Iran before the conclusion of the JCPOA, the production and sale of oil became limited.”
“However, following the implementation of the JCPOA and lifting of sanctions, we managed in a short period of time to increase oil sales to more than two million barrels per day ... and today we are ready to further increase that capacity,” Iran’s president said.
Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, he added, will take all necessary measures to prepare the oil industry equipment and facilities to boost Iran’s oil export and sales within the next three months.
NOURNEWS