Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has warned that if Iran cannot sell oil, no country in the Middle East will be able to. Speaking to the state news agency IRNA on Tuesday, he said no infrastructure in the region would be safe unless Iran’s security is guaranteed.
“In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will be able to sell oil either,” Ghalibaf said.
The warning comes as Iran faces severe restrictions on its oil exports because of its ongoing conflict with Washington and US sanctions. Earlier, the governor of Iran’s central bank said the country’s crude exports had fallen to zero because of the war and sanctions.
Earlier this month, Ghalibaf warned that if the United States attacked Iran’s oil and gas facilities, US energy infrastructure and assets in the Gulf and around the Strait of Hormuz could face Iranian retaliation.
On September 19, the US military said more than one billion barrels of crude had passed through the Strait of Hormuz with US military support in recent months, while Iran was said to have exported zero barrels under what Washington calls its “strict blockade”.
Ghalibaf also criticised US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks on the strait. On Saturday, Trump rejected Iran’s offer to reopen the strait to normal commercial traffic within seven days, calling Tehran’s conditions unacceptable and claiming that the United States has “full control” of the strait.
Iran’s proposal demands the release of Iranian assets frozen by the United States, the lifting of oil sanctions and an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Tehran has said that if these conditions are met, it would reopen the strait and begin talks on a final settlement.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Qatari mediators would present the United States with some new ideas that emerged in talks with Tehran on how Iran’s conditions for reopening the strait could be met. Tehran expects Washington’s final response on Tuesday.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report