Iran denounced on Sunday as “illegal and unjustified” the American sanctions announced Friday against its oil sector, Washington saying it was acting “in response” to the missile attack carried out by Tehran against Israel on October 1.
In a statement, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaïl Baghaï, defended the attack carried out by Iran against Israel and “strongly condemned” the new American sanctions described as “illegal and unjustified”.
These target the entire sector, according to a press release from the Treasury Department, but also around twenty ships as well as companies based abroad, all accused of being involved in the transport of Iranian oil and petrochemical materials. .
For Washington, it is a question of increasing financial pressure on Tehran and “limiting the regime’s capacity to collect the revenue necessary to destabilize the region and attack the partners of the United States”, indicated the Treasury.
“The policy of threats and maximum pressure” has no effect on “Iran’s desire to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests and citizens against any violation and foreign aggression,” Mr. Baghai.
According to him, the sanctions will allow Israel “to continue killing innocent people and constitute a threat to the peace and unity of the region and the world.”
On October 1, Iran launched around 200 missiles against Israel, an attack presented as a response to the assassinations of the leader of Palestinian Hamas in Tehran, blamed on Israel, and the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as a general Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
American sanctions result in the freezing of assets held directly or indirectly by the targeted companies in the United States as well as the ban on companies based in the country, or American citizens, from trading with these sanctions targets, at the risk of be sanctioned in turn.
These new sanctions come in a context of awaiting the attack promised by Israel against Iran in response to that carried out by Tehran in early October, while oil prices reached their highest level since August .
Iran is one of the ten largest oil producing countries and has the third largest proven reserves in the world.
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