The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) praised Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for implied threats the president made against international oil supplies, CNN reported on Wednesday.
Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC-QF, who runs Iran’s foreign military operations, said, addressing Rouhani, “Your valuable statement that said there will be no guarantees for oil exports from this region unless the Islamic Republic of Iran (can) also export its oil was a source of pride.”
Rouhani had said to a group of Iranians currently living in Switzerland on Tuesday that if the United States tried to prevent Iran from exporting its oil, “they do not understand what it means, because it would be totally nonsense that Iran’s oil is not exported while at the same time the region’s oil is exported.”
In a letter to Rouhani, Soleimani called the president’s remarks a “source of pride,” for saying that if “Iran’s oil is not allowed to be exported, then there will be no guarantee that other countries in the region would be able to export theirs.” Soleimani added that he would help implement any policy that would serve Iran’s interests.
The United States has said that it will re-impose sanction on Iranian oil exports November 4. As a result, at least 50 global firms have announced that they will cease doing business with the Iranian oil industry.
“We have been clear with countries and companies around the world that we are bringing severe economic pressure on Iran until the regime changes its destabilizing policies,” State Department official Brian Hook said at a press conference on Monday.
When he announced that the United States would withdraw from the JCPOA in May, President Donald Trump observed that since the deal was implemented, Iran’s military budget grew by 40% and its “bloody ambitions have grown even more brazen.”
In addition to threatening the shipping of the world’s oil, Rouhani has been rebuked by Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz for denying Israel’s right to exist. Rouhani has also threatened to reduce Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, since arriving in Europe earlier this week.
[Photo: Tasnim News]