Iran has plans for crude sales if snapback triggered: Paknejad
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said the country had drawn up contingency plans to maintain oil exports under any scenario that might arise from renewed international sanctions amid European powers’ threat to trigger the UN snapback mechanism over Iran’s nuclear program, IRIB News reported on Monday. “We are certainly not without a plan,” Paknejad said, responding to the prospect of a full reimposition of UN sanctions, including those targeting crude exports. He also dismissed media speculation that Iranian oil sales had dipped following military strikes on Iranian sites by Israel and the United States in June. “Iran’s oil exports continue as before”, he added, rejecting recent Western media claims of a June drop in shipments as “media hype” and “psychological warfare.” His remarks come as Britain, France and Germany–the three European signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, known formally as the JCPOA— threaten they may provoke the deal’s snapback clause by the end of August unless Tehran reaches a new understanding with Washington over its nuclear work. The clause, embedded in the JCPOA, allows any party to reimpose previously lifted UN sanctions should Iran be found in breach of its nuclear commitments. The 2015 accord, which also includes China and Russia, has been on life support since the United States unilaterally walked out of it in May 2018 and reinstate sweeping economic sanctions on Iran. Iran has since gradually rolled back limits on its uranium enrichment in retaliation for US hostile measures. Iranian and European diplomats held talks on Friday in Turkey to discuss the looming deadline, with the snapback mechanism set to expire on October 18. The meeting followed a wave of Israeli and US airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, including Fordow and Natanz, last month. Despite sustained pressure from the US, Iran’s oil exports have rebounded sharply in recent years—from under 200,000 barrels per day in 2020 to more than 1.8mn bpd in recent months, according to ship-tracking data. Much of this crude reportedly ends up in China. The administration of US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said it aims to drive Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” but new figures from international monitoring firms suggest those efforts have fallen short of the mark, with Tehran continuing to pump crude under the radar.
