‘Ransom to Israel’: Iran slams US sanctions on its energy sector

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman has slammed 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 on Sunday 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.”

Pointing to the destructive and negative role of the US in the security and stability of the West Asian region, Baghaei said Washington is the “most important” political supporter and the main supplier of weapons used by the Zionist regime in the Gaza genocide and aggression against Lebanon, and also the regime’s partner and accomplice in committing the most severe international crimes.

US imposes fresh sanctions on Iran over its retaliatory operation against Israel

The United States has imposed fresh sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports over the Islamic Republic’s retaliatory strikes against Israel.

“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.

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