Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to quit a multinational nuclear deal would not affect Tehran’s oil exports if the EU could salvage the pact.
“Every new decision in OPEC needs unanimity... I believe that if the European Union helps us... the level of the oil exports of Iran will not change,” Zanganeh told reporters after a meeting with the EU’s energy chief Miguel Arias Canete.
The EU wants to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, which offers the Islamic Republic relief from economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Europe sees the agreement as an important element of international security.
However major European companies, partly wary of the remaining U.S. sanctions on Iran, have been reluctant to do business with Tehran, which needs to attract over $100 billion in foreign investment to boost its crude output.
“I have no doubt that these extraterritorial sanctions from U.S. against Iran will have an impact on (foreign) investment in Iran,” Zanganeh told reporters. “It will not stop us but will reduce the rate of growth.”