Iran says it is selling the oil it needs to, despite U.S. pressure

GENEVA/LONDON (Reuters) – Iran said on Tuesday it had so far been able to sell as much oil as it needs despite U.S. pressure, but urged European countries that oppose the U.S. sanctions to do more to shield Iran.

The United States on Monday restored sanctions targeting Iran’s oil, banking and transport sectors and threatened more action to stop what Washington called its “outlaw” policies – steps that Tehran called economic warfare and vowed to defy.

The measures are part of a wider effort by U.S. President Donald Trump to curb Tehran’s missile and nuclear programs and diminish the Islamic Republic’s influence in the Middle East, notably its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

Trump is targeting Iran’s main source of revenue – its oil exports – as well as its financial sector, essentially making 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries off-limits to foreign banks, on pain of losing access to the U.S. financial system.

“The Americans constantly said they would reduce the sale of Iran’s oil to zero but I have to say that, so far, we have been able to sell our required amounts of oil,” Tasnim news agency quoted Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri as saying.

“The Americans, with the help of propaganda, don’t see the realities.”

Jahangiri said he had spoken to a handful of managers from companies on the U.S. sanctions list, and that some had already formulated plans on how to deal with the measures.

However, Iran’s oil minister wrote to OPEC’s secretary general calling for two committees that monitor an output deal with non-OPEC countries to be scrapped, accusing them of siding with the United States.

The head of Iran’s central bank, Abdolnasser Hemmati, said Iranian banks should use their previous experience dealing with sanctions to support the foreign trade process and financial transfers”, according to the state news agency, IRNA.

EUROPEAN SUPPORT

The European Union, France, Germany and Britain, participants with the United States in the 2015 deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, said they regretted the U.S. move and wanted to protect European firms doing legitimate business with Iran.

The EU is seeking to launch a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV) to sidestep the U.S. financial system by using an EU intermediary to handle trade with Iran.

However, major European firms including France’s Total, Germany’s Allianz and Siemens, Denmark’s shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk and France’s PSA Group have already halted or wound down their activities in Iran to avoid U.S. sanctions.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour said the SPV was “an interesting procedure, but what is lacking is speed and efficiency”.

He said European small and medium-sized businesses were still active in Iran “without making any noise”, and that European governments were trying to help them to keep operating.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that Trump would eventually come to respect Iran:

“President Trump’s predecessors also began crafting their Iran policy with similar bravado; but came around to accepting and respecting the reality of Iran as they became more experienced in office.”

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