The new U.S. Administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran will fail – again – and will not achieve its goal to drive the Islamic Republic’s oil exports to zero, Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said this weekend.
“The maximum pressure policy has failed, and (Trump’s) dream of reducing Iran’s oil exports to zero will never come true,” the Iranian minister was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump restored the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran. In a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) this week, President Trump directed the Secretary of State to modify or rescind sanctions waivers, particularly those that provide Iran any degree of economic or financial relief.
The Secretary of State shall also “implement a robust and continual campaign, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury and other relevant executive departments or agencies, to drive Iran’s export of oil to zero, including exports of Iranian crude to the People’s Republic of China,” per the presidential memorandum.
The Trump Administration began tightening the screws on the Iranian oil trade with China two days after the “maximum pressure” on Iran was restored.
The U.S. Treasury last Thursday sanctioned an international network for facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars to China.
In response to the renewed campaign to slash Iran’s oil exports to zero, the Iranian oil minister said that “This is a wish for them, but they will never achieve it.”
“The more restrictions imposed on us, the more sophisticated our measures will become,” Paknejad added, suggesting that Iran will seek new creative ways to evade the sanctions.
“This is a failed policy. It has been tested before and yielded no results. If they try it again, they will fail once more,” the Iranian minister said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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