Iran's First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Sunday that the United States could not halt the export of Iranian oil, since there is no substitution for it on the market.
"Today, US officials are lying to the world that Saudi Arabia and other countries should replace Iranian oil so that the price of oil doesn't rise. If Americans could halt Iran's oil exports, its price would hit $100 per barrel," he added.
Jahangiri further stated that Tehran expected that the US would not reduce the country's oil exports to the level of less than one million barrels a day.
In a June tweet Trump wrote that he had spoken to the Saudi King about the need to increase Riyadh's daily oil production to two million barrels due to an unstable situation in Iran and Venezuela and added that King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had agreed with the suggestion.
Just spoke to King Salman of Saudi Arabia and explained to him that, because of the turmoil & disfunction in Iran and Venezuela, I am asking that Saudi Arabia increase oil production, maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels, to make up the difference…Prices to high! He has agreed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 30 июня 2018 г.
Reacting to the announcement, Iran's OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili claimed that Saudi Arabia had “no such capacity to bolster its crude output,” and it may be seen as a call for the kingdom to “walk out of OPEC.”
At the same time, officials in the current US administration have claimed the restrictions could be reconsidered if Tehran were to change some of its foreign policies.
On May 8, President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and promised to hit Tehran with sanctions on the country’s energy oil and financial sectors despite objections from other parties to the agreement.
