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Omission of Iran’s oil in medium-term is impossible, Bijan Zangeneh told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on the sidelines of Iranplast 2018 Exhibition in Tehran.
After Washington's May 8 exit from the Iran Deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US gave 90 to 180 wind-down period to other countries before it starts re-imposing sanctions on Tehran on November 4.
According to reports, the United States have been trying to put pressure on Asian and African states to decrease oil imports from Iran, and this is while some countries including India, Japan and Turkey still resist the pressure. Furthermore, the US officials have not held talks yet with China and India as two major importers of Iran oil on the issue.
As Zangeneh said, South Korea is the sole country which has cut off its oil imports from Iran for the third consecutive months.
In continuation of his remarks, Zangeneh commented on the Joint OPEC-non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) held in Algeria on September 23, saying the outcome of the Algiers meeting was that no country gave positive response to the US President Donald Trump who had asked for increase in Organization’s output.
Zangeneh said OPEC is an independent body and is not a branch of the US Department of Energy.
Trump’s remarks were an insult to the nations and also to the US friends in the region, Zangeneh noted.
“We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices! We will remember. The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
OPEC meeting in Algeria brought nothing to Trump, the petroleum minister said.
Touching upon the fuel cards in Iran, the minister said that resumption of a plan to allocate a gasoline quota to the drivers is probable.
Iran has also plans to combat smuggling of gasoline, the minister said.
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