Oil sales will continue: Hassan Rouhani

Iranian President Rouhani © All rights reserved

Oil sales will continue and Iran will break U.S. imposed sanctions, said a defiant Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran’s vital energy and banking sectors.

“America wanted to cut to zero Iran’s oil sales … but we will continue to sell our oil … to break sanctions,” said Rouhani to economists at a meeting that was broadcast live on state television.

As a means to deal with the outcome of the unilateral decision taken by the Trump Administration to block Iran’s oil sales, Tehran is in touch with other signatories, including the European Union, of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord .

“We are in regular contact with other signatories of the nuclear deal … setting up mechanism to continue trade with the European Union will take time,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi.

Iran’s oil sales will however not be completely chocked. The United States has allowed eight importers to continue buying Iranian oil.

“Today the enemy (the United States) is targeting our economy … the main target of sanctions is our people,” said Rouhani in reference to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement that these penalties “are the toughest sanctions ever put in place on the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“This is an economic war against Iran but … America should learn that it can not use the language of force against Iran … We are prepared to resist any pressure,” said Rouhani

Despite U.S. attempts to choke off Iranian oil sales, other signatories, such as the European Union, are in the process of creating a mechanism to facilitate payments for Iranian oil exports which are expected to be operational by early 2019.

“We are in regular contact with other signatories of the nuclear deal … setting up (a) mechanism to continue trade with the European Union will take time,” said Qasemi at a weekly news conference in Tehran.

He went on to add, the reimposition of U.S. sanctions to block Iran’s oil sales were part of a psychological war by Washington against Tehran, and that “America’s economic pressure on Iran is futile.”