Iran will ’not remain silent‘ in response to ‚US hostilities‘: Khamenei
- AuthorAresu Eqbali
- EditorJonathan Dart
Tehran — Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Wednesday Iran will „not remain silent“ and will respond after the US said it intends to impose „maximum economic pressure“ on Tehran through its sanctions, which are aimed at blocking all Iranian oil exports.
„They should know that this hostility will not remain unanswered and they will receive the response to this hostility,“ Khamenei was quoted as saying by the state-owned students‘ news agency ISNA.
The US announced Monday it would allow sanctions waivers granted to eight countries, which allowed them to continue purchasing Iranian oil, to expire on May 2.
Khamenei vowed that Iran would continue to keep its oil exports flowing. „We can export our oil as much as needed and as much as we decide,“ he said.
„They [The US] assume they have blocked the way. But the active nation and the alert statesmen, if they do their best, can open up many dead ends.“ Oil minister Bijan Zanganeh had warned Tuesday that the US‘ sanctions crackdown would backfire in the form of a supply squeeze, given the „fragile“ state of the market.
„The oil market is very unpredictable and under these fragile conditions there is no assurance that oil will be produced as much as the market needs,“ Zanganeh said in a speech to parliament broadcast on state radio. „The Americans and their allies by politicizing oil and using it as a weapon, have made a big mistake.“ Zanganeh, however, said Iran would „act with full capability to break the US sanctions,“ though he did not provide any details.
Exports averaged a five-month high 1.7 million b/d in March, according to S&P Global Platts trade flow data cFlow and shipping sources. Iran’s key buyers have scrambled to pick up more volumes before the US sanctions waivers expire in early May.
The exports had dropped to 1.06 million b/d in November, when the US first imposed the sanctions, but have rebounded in recent months with the US‘ issuance of waivers to allow India, China, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to continue their purchases of Iranian oil.
Iranian exports averaged 1.33 million b/d since the US imposed secondary sanctions on the country on November 5, 2018, according to S&P Global Platts estimates.
Iran produced 2.69 million b/d of crude in March, according to the most recent Platts OPEC Survey.
–Aresu Eqbali, newsdesk@spglobal.com
–Edited by Jonathan Dart, newsdesk@spglobal.com
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