Zehra Nur Düz
October 27, 2020•Update: October 27, 2020
ANKARA
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh on Monday condemned US sanctions against him and his colleagues.
Zanganeh described the move as “a passive reaction to the failure of Washington's policy of reducing [Iran's] crude oil exports to zero.”
“Iran's oil industry will not be hamstrung,” he wrote on Twitter, criticizing US unilateralism. “I have no assets outside of Iran to be subject to the sanctions.”
The US on Monday imposed sanctions on Iran's Petroleum Ministry along with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
Eleven entities, eight individuals including Zanganeh and two vessels were sanctioned by President Donald Trump’s administration for their alleged financial support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Four of them were involved in the recent sale of Iranian gasoline to Venezuela.
The entities include National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), Iranian Oil Pipelines and Telecommunications Company, National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company, Abadan Oil Refining Company, Imam Khomeini Shazand Oil Refining Company and the National Petrochemical Company (NPC).
The designated individuals include NIOC Managing Director Masoud Karbasian, NITC Managing Director Nasrollah Sardashti, NIORDC Director Alireza Sadiqabadi and NPC Managing Director Behzad Mohammadi.
The vessels Longbow Lake and Wu Xian were also sanctioned due to their links to NIOC.
Ties between the US and Iran have been on a knife's edge since 2018, when Washington unilaterally withdrew from a nuclear deal with Tehran despite international opposition.
