JULY 25, 2018 – Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Tehran would respond with “equal countermeasures” if the United States tries to block Iranian crude oil exports.
“If America wants to take a serious step in this direction it will definitely be met with a reaction and equal countermeasures from Iran,” Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying today.
U.S. President Donald Trump addressed on Monday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Twitter in an all-caps tirade, threatening “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.”
Tehran is dismissing the threat, and Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani said President Trump’s comments were “the words of a troublemaker”.
In response to President Trump’s tweet, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded on Twitter on Monday, “COLOR US UNIMPRESSED: The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them —albeit more civilized ones—for 40 yrs. We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!”
This past Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei supported Rouhani’s recent remarks that “If Iran’s oil export is blocked, no other country in region will export oil either.”
“The remarks made by the President in his recent trip to Europe stating that, ‘if Iran’s oil export is blocked, no other country is region can export oil either,’ are important remarks that represent the approach and policies of the establishment. The duty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to strictly pursue stances taken by the President,” Khamenei said.
Since the U.S. signaled a harder line against Iran’s oil exports last month, analysts have started to warn that many more Iranian barrels could be removed from the market than initially expected, and the thinning global spare capacity as Saudi Arabia and Russia raise production could boost oil prices.
