“The nine countries to which the US has granted exemptions from oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran are among Tehran’s main oil buyers, whose interests are in buying oil from Iran; and on this basis, regardless of Washington’s decisions, they will continue with economic exchanges with Iran,” member of the Majlis (parliament) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Avaz Heidarpour told ICANA on Saturday.
He added that the White House decision would have no impact on Iran’s trade exchanges.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton added China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Taiwan to the list of the countries exempted from the sanctions for another six months.
The move follows a similar action on September 14, in which the US exempted Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Japan from complying with the sanctions on Iran's oil industry for another 180 days.
The Iranian legislator said the US is engineering the oil sanctions that have been used as a pressure lever against Iran over the recent decade in order to maintain its own hegemony, adding that Washington’s policies would bear no fruit.
Heidarpour noted that the countries that buy Iran’s crude oil cannot change the system and mechanism of their oil facilities; so, they continue their ties with Iran.
The West’s sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran would not damage the country but would affect the countries that are imposing the bans, he pointed out.
At the beginning of 2012, the US and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.
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