Any State Trying to Take Away Oil Market Share from Iran Will Pay for It: Tehran

Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said that Tehran would allow private sector to export crude oil to help beat the US sanctions.

According to Jahangiri, any country trying to take away the oil market share from Iran is committing “great treachery” and “will one day pay for it.”

“Iranian crude will be offered on the bourse and the private sector can export it,” he said, commenting on the looming US sanctions.

The statement comes as Iran is mulling possible counter-measures to confront US sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic.

According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, the country’s government has already set up a commission tasked with finding buyers for Iranian oil after the US imposes its sanctions.

Earlier in June, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said he did not rule out Tehran’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the deal which required Tehran to maintain a peaceful nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, promising to re-impose sanctions against Iran that had been in place before the deal was reached in 2015. The unilateral move taken by the United States has been opposed by other signatories of the Iran deal.