Iran’s Vice President says US failed to stop Iranian oil exports

The United States has failed to stop the Iranian oil exports despite the intention to bring it to zero, said First Vice President of Iran Eshaq Jahangiri.

“Oil, as the main source of income for Iran, has been under severe sanctions. Under the previous sanctions, the maximum amount of oil exports for Iran was set at 1 million barrels and then we were selling up to 900,000 barrels of oil. Now they [Washington] said that Iran’s oil exports should be brought to zero, and, fortunately, they failed to achieve this,” Jahangiri said in a statement.

The remarks came in the light of measures developed by the Iranian authorities aimed at moving away from oil as the country’s main source of income. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani emphasized that US sanctions would have less effect if Teheran had less dependence on this source of income. In mid-February, Rouhani said that Teheran for the first time in its history stopped focusing on oil.

In addition, Teheran is making attempts to find new routes for oil exports, primarily bypassing the key energy route – the Strait of Hormuz – since the instability in this area may endanger oil deliveries from the entire region.

In 2018, Teheran did not rule out a possibility of closure of the Strait of Hormuz for other states if Iran was unable to export oil as a result of the US sanctions. The Iranian military later announced the absence of such plans.

Iran is currently constructing a pipeline from the Goureh oil terminal to the port of Jask, which will allow to transport up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the eastern part of the Persian Gulf directly to the port in the Gulf of Oman, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The project is planned to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

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