Ghasemi: We Will Respond in Kind if Iran's Oil Exports Are Cut

Bahram Ghasemi, the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, stated that if the United States attempts to halt Iran's oil exports, it will face a "response in kind" from Iran. On Tuesday, August 23, he reiterated the positions of Iranian officials over the past few days, saying: "They claim they want to bring Iran's oil exports to zero... We will not allow this... contrary to all international norms and by extending U.S. domestic laws to other countries, they want to deprive the Islamic Republic of Iran of its basic rights..." He emphasized that if the U.S. takes serious action in this direction, it will definitely face a counteraction from Iran. He did not provide details on how this "response in kind" would manifest or its scale. On Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani described the U.S. effort to cut Iran's oil exports as a "declaration of war" against Iran and warned U.S. President Donald Trump not to "play with the lion's tail." Rouhani had previously stated that if Iran cannot export its oil, it makes no sense for other countries in the region to export their oil from the Persian Gulf. Shortly thereafter, Trump responded on Twitter, saying: "Never, ever threaten the United States again, or you will face consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever faced." On the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, addressing a group of Iranian Americans, accused Iranian officials of corruption and destabilizing the region, emphasizing that Washington seeks to cut off Iran's financial resources and oil exports. Meanwhile, U.S. European allies, who are trying to preserve the nuclear deal, have been working in recent weeks to find a way for banking transactions with Iran so that it can continue its oil exports. According to reports, one of these measures is direct money transfers from the central banks of EU member states to the Central Bank of Iran. As the U.S. oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic are set to take effect on November 4, the tremors of these sanctions have already destabilized Iran's currency and gold markets. The Iranian government has also announced a ban on the import of hundreds of items to prevent currency outflow. Additionally, by offering dollars at a rate of 4200 tomans to importers of permitted goods, opportunities for "rent-seeking" have emerged for certain companies and individuals, as evidenced by a list published by the Minister of Communications. Disruptions in Iran's oil exports have occurred in the past due to international disputes. During Mohammad Mossadegh's premiership in the early 1950s, following the nationalization of oil, Britain blocked Iran's oil exports by sending warships to the Persian Gulf and freezing foreign accounts. During the Iran-Iraq War, Iran's oil exports dropped from 5 million barrels per day before the revolution to as low as 300,000 barrels per day in some months of 1981. Again, due to Iran's nuclear program in 2012, international oil (banking) sanctions were imposed by the U.S. and the EU against Iran. As a result of these sanctions, Iran's oil exports in 2013 under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government fell to 1.685 million barrels. In 2005, at the beginning of Ahmadinejad's presidency, Iran's oil exports were over 2.6 million barrels per day.