Azerbaijan, Baku -- Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi threatened on Saturday that the country will halt all its oil exports if the "external pressures" maintain on the Islamic Republic's oil sector.
| Okay. Go ahead. We dare you. |
"We have been trying to negotiate to help the oil sector suffer the least losses, but if pressures and restrictions go on, we will revise the policy to supply oil to the industrial world," ISNA quoted Qasemi as saying.
On October 23, Qasemi was quoted by news agencies at the World Energy Forum in Dubai as saying that Iran had contingency plans to survive without any oil revenue if further sanctions were applied. The sanctions are meant to pressure Iran into suspending its uranium enrichment. Western nations suspect that it is meant to enable Iran to produce nuclear weapons.
"If you continue to add to the sanctions, we cut our oil exports to the world," the minister was quoted as saying. "We are hopeful that this doesn't happen, because citizens will suffer. We don't want to see European and U.S. citizens suffer."
Iran's oil crude export has fallen reportedly from 2.3 mbpd in 2011 to above 1 mbpd. |