Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has said Tehran was mulling new ways to sell its oil to circumvent US sanctions as he criticized Washington’s policy to bring the country's oil exports to zero.
The United States has demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers that had allowed Iran’s eight biggest customers, most of them in Asia, to import limited volumes.
Iran is examining new ways to sell its oil, Zanganeh said, according to IRNA.
On Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said: “In the coming months, the Americans themselves will see that we will continue our oil exports.”
“Those who use oil as a weapon ... are creating the death and collapse of OPEC,” Zanganeh said Wednesday in a speech at an oil and gas conference in Tehran.
Iran would not leave OPEC, Masoud Karbasian, the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said, according to SHANA, the news outlet of the Iranian oil ministry.
In a related development, Qatar has spoken out against Washington's decision to block all exports of Iranian oil.
"The sanctions should not be extended because they have an adverse impact on countries benefiting from Iranian oil," Qatar's foreign minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Wednesday.
