Baku, Azerbaijan, April 6
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The amount of oil sold by Iran during the times of sanctions is not too different from the amount sold by Iran's law enforcement agencies.
The remarks were made by an anonymous Iranian official answering the questions of ISNA regarding the Iranian Oil Ministry’s denial of claims made by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of $30 billion worth of Iranian oil being sold but the revenue gained from the sales not being returned to Iran, Trend reports.
The Iranian official stated that the law enforcement agencies, of course, managed to sell oil and brought the revenue from it back to the country.
Iranian citizens, mainly businessmen approved by the Oil Ministry, were also involved in oil sales, but the revenues from their oil sales were not all too different from those of law enforcement agencies.
The official added that, in contrast to the claims being made, oil was not sold in large amounts.
"One batch of oil was sold [by Iranian businessmen] at that time; the remaining batches were not sold. Many failed to sell, and could not return the money back to the country," he said.
According to him, when it comes to ‘finding a way around the sanctions’ and ‘managing to sell the oil’, nobody managed to sell oil besides exceptional cases – thus, only one batch was sold.
Earlier, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Russia Today that $30 billion of oil was sold 5 years ago, but its money was never returned back to Iran. This was followed by the Iranian Oil Ministry stating that the Iranian ex-president’s claims are far from the truth, and that all of the money earned from the oil sold was returned to the country.
In 2012, Iranian law enforcement agencies were given 2 batches of oil to compensate for the wage gap. Overall, $240 million were earned from the sale of the oil batches.