Iranian oil workers
© UnknownIranian technicians work at the oil-separator facilities in the country's Azadegan oil field, 80 km west of Ahvaz. (file photo)
A top Russian official has dismissed the US threats against the Kremlin over its trade ties with Iran, saying Moscow sees no reason to drop economic deals with Tehran.

"We are having conversations with Iran on trade and economic relations. They have not been completed. We don't see reasons why we should give up the development of economic relations with Iran. We are not violating any international sanctions by such actions," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasili Nebenzya said on Sunday.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Iran and Russia are close to sealing a USD 20-billion oil-for-commodities deal.

Under the deal, which is yet to be finalized, Russia will buy 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil per day in return for goods.

On April 8, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington could impose sanctions if Russia and Iran move forward with the oil deal.


Comment: Could it be any clearer that U.S. government policy is to thwart intra-Eurasian trading and thus control the world?


Also this month, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the Islamic Republic is determined to raise the volume of its economic transactions with Russia under long-term deals.

The possible energy barter deal between Tehran and Moscow has also provoked an angry reaction from some US senators, who have threatened to reinstate the anti-Iran sanctions eased under an interim nuclear deal signed between Tehran and the six world powers -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany -- last November.

Nebenzya further said that the sanctions imposed by the United States against Tehran do not mean that trade and economic cooperation between Moscow and Tehran is impossible.

"There are unilateral sanctions of the USA against Iran which we don't regard ourselves bound with while the calls to give up the development of relations with Iran greatly look like competitive rivalry," he said.

The Russian diplomat went on to say that "while we are being urged to give up the development of trade and economic relations with Iran and deals that some call oil-for-goods, Western emissaries have hasted to Tehran, apparently fearing to be late to 'the cutting of the pie' after sanctions against Iran are cancelled."