Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Calls for a One-Month Oil Sanction Against the West

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, called on oil-producing Islamic countries to impose a one-month oil sanction against the West to pressure them to stop supporting Israel. In his Friday prayer sermon today, Khamenei stated that Arab and Islamic governments could use oil as a weapon. He urged these countries to cut their oil supply to all nations that, according to him, support the 'savage regime' of Israel for a symbolic one-month period. Iran is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Earlier this week, Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, mentioned that his government would consider using oil as a weapon and added that an oil sanction, if agreed upon by all Islamic countries, would be extremely effective. However, other major oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have rejected the idea of using oil as a weapon, which was initially proposed by Iraq on Monday. Kuwait stated that imposing an oil sanction would harm Arab and Islamic countries more than the United States and other Western nations. OPEC has also rejected Iraq's proposal.