ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s oil minister admits that the situation has become ‘very difficult’ for oil exports as American economic pressure on the country mounts. However, Iran remains steadfast in its refusal to bow to pressure, with the spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) warning that the two month ultimatum Tehran gave to remaining members of the nuclear deal will not be extended.
“Conditions are very difficult,” Bijan Zanganeh said on Tuesday, according to Shana, the ministry’s official news website. “But because there is no smoke, fire and blood, we don’t feel there is a war going on.”
“Today’s situation is more difficult than during the war, because back then we had no difficulty exporting oil and Saddam [Hussein] was the only one targeting our assets,” Zanganeh said, referring to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. “Moreover, we could collect the oil revenue, but this process is now done in a difficult way and right now we cannot export oil in the name of Iran.”
Washington and Tehran have been at loggerheads since May last year when President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, leaving the Europeans and other signatories of the deal to pick up the pieces.
Under relentless US pressure, Iranian oil exports have now fallen to below 500,000 barrel per day (bpd). Washington rescinded the six month waivers that were given to eight major customers of Iranian oil in early May.
Iran followed suit by suspending two clauses of the nuclear deal and giving a sixty day ultimatum to the European countries to deliver on their commitments towards Iran as part of the JCPOA, or Iran would take steps to suspend further commitments to the deal.
“The two month window of opportunity for the remaining members of JCPOA is not extendable,” AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Wednesday. “In accordance with our schedule, the second step will be taken.”
“What is important is that we are establishing equilibrium between our commitments and our rights. If they [Europeans] recognize our rights by removing the sanctions as part of the JCPOA, we will also fulfill our commitment, otherwise we will cut back…” he explained.
Speaking to his cabinet on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani described the US sanctions as a “crime against humanity”, echoing Kamalvandi’s comments.
“If our objectives are not met after 60 days which started on May 8, we will take the new measures that we had announced. If they fulfill their commitment…we will return to square one and there will be no obstacles. This is the logic of Iran.”
In further time-sensitive developments, Iran will exceed its JCPOA-specified uranium stockpile limit within the next ten days, the AEOI said on Monday.
In recent days, Washington has deployed yet more troops to the Gulf region following attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The US and its allies blame the attacks on Iran, but Tehran strenuously rejects the charges.
Various Iranian officials say that while pressure from the outside world is making life difficult for them, incompetence and corruption from within is another cause for concern.
Speaking at an event commemorating Mohammad Javad Tondguyan, a senior official of the ministry who was killed during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980s, veteran oil minister Zanganeh addressed the issue of corruption within the oil ministry and the wider sector head on.
“Sadly, the generation of Martyr Tondguyan is now going extinct among top and mid ranking managers… who worked for God and were not busy filling their pockets,” he warned.
While Iran has not officially announced how much oil the country exported in May, when oil waivers ended, Zanganeh’s comments suggest that the country is going through its most difficult time since the 1979 Revolution.
Iranian officials insist that the country will weather the tense storm in the same way that it has defied the US government over the last forty years.
“There will be no war because there is no reason why a war should break out,” Ali Shamkhani the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council told state run news agency IRNA on Wednesday.
Speaking from the city of Ufa in Russia, where he is attending a Russia-organized security meeting, he said “We are witnessing an economic war from America orchestrated by Washington officials against the people of Iran. They thought they would bring the Iranian nation to its knees but we saw the Iranian people stood up against them.”
