Iran censures US sanctions on energy sector as ‘ransom’ to Israel
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned on Sunday the new round of US sanctions targeting the country’s oil industry as a “ransom” to the Israeli regime following the Islamic Republic’s retaliatory operation against the occupied territories earlier in the month.
Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement that the bans are “illegal and unjustified” after the US Treasury Department slapped Iran with a spate of new sanctions on a number of companies in the country’s oil and petrochemical industry as a response to Tehran’s October 1 attack against Tel Aviv.
Baghaei underscored Iran’s missile operation as a legal action under international law and in line with the exercise of the inherent right of self-defense.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman censured the US move to impose sanctions against several companies and ships over what Washington claimed to be involvement in the transfer of Iranian oil products, and termed it as a “form of ransom to the rogue Israeli regime.”
“Imposing sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran under the guise of supporting the Zionist regime, besides creating the international responsibility for the US government, will make the occupying regime more aggressive to continue killing innocents and pose a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world,” he said.
“The US regime’s addiction to the policy of threats and maximum pressure against the Iranian people will not affect the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests, and its citizens against any violation and foreign aggression,” Baghaei added.
The US Treasury Department on Friday designated 10 companies and 17 vessels as blocked property, claiming they were involved in shipments of Iranian oil and petrochemical products.
The department said that the sanctions are designed to intensify financial pressure on Iran, including by limiting its ability to earn the energy revenue it uses to help resistance movements across West Asia.
On October 1, Iran launched a barrage of missiles toward the Zionist entity’s military intelligence and spying bases over the regime’s recent acts of aggression.
Dubbed Operation True Promise 2, the daring attack came in response to the regime’s assassinations of Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan.