"Now the world needs gas and oil. It would be good to treat this topic carefully, to take a transparent position. Sanctions against Iran and Russia are not good for the West, it will suffer from them. Today there is a gas crisis in Europe, there are problems. The same is true for oil," the minister said.
Since 2021, energy prices have been surging globaly. After the beginning of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow by the West, fuel prices have accelerated the growth, pushing many Western governments to resort to contingency measures.
Iran has been under Western sanctions for years, primarily because of its nuclear program, with the sides negotiating a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna with no tangible results.
The JCPOA deal was agreed on in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union. Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from JCPOA in 2018 and re-imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iran.