The Iranian oil minister claimed that energy-related firms from the U.S. are the main losers from the sanctions placed against his country.
Speaking at the OPEC meeting in Vienna Thursday, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, said the policy was both confusing and self-defeating.
"I don't understand why U.S. companies cannot enter the Iranian market. They cannot get involved in the biggest oil projects in the world, taking place here in Iran," he said.
Zanganeh said Iran had "no difficulty" with U.S. expertise or capital and that his country needed billions of dollars of investment to complete several major projects designed to ramp up Iranian oil output.
The OPEC veteran said the U.S. restrictions hadn't prevented companies from other nations signing up to invest.
"So far everything is going well. We hope we can sign some contracts before the end of this Iranian calendar year," he said.