Lukoil snubs fuel sanctions against Iran

Russia’s largest oil company, Lukoil, has shrugged off sanctions against Iran and has resumed gasoline sales to the Islamic Republic through its trade partners.

The company discharged a cargo of 250,000 barrels of gasoline in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas last week, Reuters reported.

The second fuel cargo is expected to be shipped to the port later this week.

Lukoil, which stopped its activities in Iran under US pressures in April, resumed selling gasoline to Iran in participation with its trading and supply arm, Litasko, and China’s state-run firm, Zhuhai Zhenrong.

Following the June 9 UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, the US and European Union took unilateral measures against the country over its nuclear program.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced opposition to unilateral sanctions against Iran. Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko recently said that the United Nations sanctions against Iran would not prevent Russian firms from providing Tehran with oil products.

The US, which possesses and has used nuclear weapons in the past, accuses Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program. Tehran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency it has the right to use nuclear technology.