Reply #5: Iran MP: Could Disrupt Gulf Oil Flow If Sanctions -Report [View All]

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TEHRAN -(Dow Jones)- Iran could disrupt the flow of crude oil out of the Persian Gulf waterway if its oil exports are subjected to economic sanctions as a punitive measure over its nuclear program, said an Iranian lawmaker Saturday.

The U.N. nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, decided Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over suspicions about its nuclear program. The decision sets the stage for possible future political and economic sanctions by the U.N. body.

The semi-official Mehrnews quoted Soleiman Jaffar-zadeh, a member of the conservative Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Relations Committee, as saying political and economic sanctions against Iran would be ineffective and useless.

He warned oil producing countries in the Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia, that any sanctions on the export of Iranian oil would also negatively affect the oil exports out of the waterway by other producers. "Countries such as Saudi Arabia which play mischief these days and claim they would compensate for the oil market shortage and prevent a rise in its price with increased oil production in case of Iran's sanction must know that under those conditions there would be no oil tanker leaving the Persian Gulf intact," Jaffar-zadeh said.

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