Iran has mobilized all its resources to sell oil in a “grey market”, bypassing “illegitimate” US sanctions, Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia said on Sunday.
“We have mobilized all of the country’s resources and are selling oil in the ‘gray market’,” the official said in a forum about the US oil sanctions on Iran and their consequences. Zamaninia gave no details about the “grey market”.
“We certainly won’t sell 2.5 million barrels per day as under the (nuclear deal). But, we have found a grey market,” Zamaninia said, giving no figures for current sales.
The United States, which last year withdrew from 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers, has told buyers of Iranian oil to stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions.
Iran says it will continue to export oil in defiance of US sanctions and pressures to cut down its oil sales to zero.
The US move to mount pressure on Iran by not extending the oil sanctions waivers for the eight clients of the Iranian energy has faced backlash from the three European signatories to the nuclear deal of 2015, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The European trio, also called the E3, as well as the European Union has condemned Washington's measure to up the ante against Tehran.
“We ... take note with regret and concern of the decision by the United States not to extend waivers with regards to trade in oil with Iran,” Britain’s foreign office said in a joint statement with its German and French counterparts and the European Union.