An Iranian deputy oil minister said Tuesday that Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers would remain in force as long as Iran can sell oil, the ministry’s official news agency, Shana reported.
'The [2015] Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is effective in the oil industry as long as we will be able to sell our oil and keep our market share, receive our oil money without any problem, purchase our necessary oil equipment and finance our projects,' Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia said.
The deputy minister added that Iran's oil industry would not return to the pre-sanctions era in 2013 'under any circumstances' regardless of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on extending sanctions against Iran under the nuclear deal.
Trump said Monday that he would announce his decision on Tuesday afternoon.
Zamani-Nia said problems were not “welcome” but Iran would overcome them.
'The Iranian oil and gas industry has been faced with a myriad of challenges throughout its 110-year history, and Trump's decision tonight is one of the problems that Iran's oil industry has learned to deal with,' he said.
-Rouhani downplays Trump’s possible withdrawal
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier on Tuesday downplayed the effects of a possible decision by Trump to walk away from the nuclear agreement.
'Exceptional conditions are likely to occur from time to time and a special figure comes to power somewhere in the world to impose special conditions; however, such conditions are short-lived and will end and we will leave the problems behind,' Rouhani was quoted as saying by Shana during a visit to the ongoing Iran Oil Show 2018 in Tehran.
Rouhani said the Tehran administration had always sought to achieve 'constructive interaction' under 'win-win conditions' in its dealings worldwide.
'With or without sanctions, we have to move in such a direction to use national capabilities,' he added.
Rouhani said the Iranian government is expected to provide favorable conditions for oil industrialists.
'If we don't have good relations with our neighbors and don't have calculated relations with the world, what should we do with money and technology?' he asked.
Under the deal signed in 2015, the U.S. and the P5+1 (the permanent members of the UN Security Council —the U.S, the U.K., Russia, France, and China—plus Germany) agreed to lift some economic sanctions imposed on Iran in return for the latter agreeing to rein in its nuclear program.
Trump has repeatedly called the pact 'one of the worst negotiated agreements' he has ever seen, and has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the deal.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr