U.S. will not stop Iran exporting oil, Iranian president says

 

FILE PHOTO: Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a news conference on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid/File Photo

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States will not be able to stop Iran exporting its oil and any move to prevent Iranian crude shipments passing through the Gulf would lead to all oil exports through the waterway being blocked, Iran's president said on Tuesday.

 

The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran and U.S. officials say they aim to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero in a bid to curb the Islamic Republic's missile programme and regional influence.

 

"America should know that we are selling our oil and will continue to sell our oil and they are not able to stop our oil exports," President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech during a trip to the northern Iranian city of Shahroud.

 

"If one day they want to prevent the export of Iran's oil, then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf," he said.

 

Tensions have risen between Iran and the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear deal in May and reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

 

Rouhani said the United States would not succeed in cutting Iran's economic ties with the region and the world.

 

Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri also said on Tuesday that U.S. sanctions were hitting vulnerable people in Iran.

 

"When (Americans) say their target is the Iranian government and there won't be pressure on the sick, the elderly and the weak in society, it's a lie," Jahangiri said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

 

(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Edmund Blair)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-04

20 hours ago, webfact said:

"When (Americans) say their target is the Iranian government and there won't be pressure on the sick, the elderly and the weak in society, it's a lie,"

What? Iran has only now figured out that A45 tells more lies than truths..... which is the problem of continually lying... no one knows what to believe.

Short of full scale war (and the ultimate total destruction of Iran) I don't see how he can claim to close the Persian Gulf.

Threats however may drive up insurance rates for any tanker wishing to pass through. 

Especially to North Korea and China!