Iran condemns ‘illegal and unjustified’ US sanctions on oil industry: ministry

With Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month, Iran denounced on Sunday what it called a “illegal and unjustified” extension of US sanctions against its oil industry.

Iran’s strike on Israel was legitimate, according to a statement from foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who also “strongly condemned” the penalties as “illegal and unjustified.”

Responding to Tehran’s attack on Israel on October 1, the United States imposed a series of additional sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors on Friday.

Baghaei argued that Iran has the right to react to the new sanctions and supported Iran’s attack on Israel as legitimate.

The US Treasury Department said it targeted Iran’s so-called shadow fleet of ships involved in selling Iranian oil in circumvention of existing sanctions.

It said it had designated at least 10 companies and 17 vessels as “blocked property” over their involvement in shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.

The State Department also announced it was placing sanctions on six further firms and six ships for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran”.

Baghaei said “the policy of threats and maximum pressure” had no impact on “Iran’s will to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests and citizens against any violation and foreign aggressions.”

Israel “will be able to continue killing innocents and pose a threat to the peace and unity of the region and the world,” he claimed, because of the sanctions.

With oil prices at an all-time high since August, the globe is waiting for Israel to deliver on its threat of retaliating against Tehran’s missile assault.

US President Joe Biden counselled Israel earlier this month not to targeting oil infrastructure in Iran, one of the world’s 10 largest producers.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi last Tuesday warned that “any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response”.