Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday said that the United States will not be able to stop his country from exporting oil. He also warned that no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf if Washington wants to halt Tehran’s exports, the Tehran Times reported.
US sanctions targeting Iran’s oil, banking and transport sectors came into effect last month. India is among eight countries that Washington DC has allowed to temporarily import oil from Tehran despite the sanctions. The Trump administration had earlier said that it expected all countries, including India, to reduce their oil imports from Iran to zero by November 5.
“The United States should know that we are selling our oil and will continue to sell,” the Iranian president said in a speech in Shahroud city of Senman province. “The United States should know that if it wishes to halt Iran’s oil export then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf.”
Rouhani claimed that Iran had achieved a “historic victory” against the US after a “40-year clash”, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. He claimed that the US attempted to overthrow the Iranian government in a coup, a plot which failed. Rouhani declared that Iran “has never bowed, and will never bow” to Washington and the “Zionists”, who cannot tolerate Tehran becoming powerful.
The president alleged that the US was trying to push India, China and Europe away from Iran and spread “Iranophobia”. However, he added: “All countries condemned US sanctions on Iran; the US was defeated in the United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice.”
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