Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 13/ Trend M. Moezzi
If India plans to exploit the sanctions against Iran and not pay its oil debt, Iran will stop supplying it with oil, Pana news quoted a member of the Iranian parliament's energy commission as saying.
Responding to India's request for more oil while still owing Iran $5 bln in oil payments, MP Hossein Nejabat said, "International transactions have their own procedures, payments have to be made within a certain period of time while buying and selling and supply and demand have a very clear process."
India has tightened the web of sanctions around Iran by barring Indian companies from a range of deals transacted through a key trade-finance clearinghouse in last December.
India is Iran's biggest trading partner in business done through the Asian Clearing Union, originally set up by the United Nations in 1974 to help facilitate trade in South Asia and headquartered in Tehran.
Indian firms had struggled for more than six months to pay their $5 billion debt to Tehran as they faced problems. They paid off the debts of Iran's oil in August 2011.
The sanctions against Iran have affected countries' payments for oil to Iran and India's debt to Iran has grown, although the situation has improved recently, according to Mr. Nejabat. India, China and Russia oppose oil sanctions against Iran and try to benefit from the current conditions because they know Iran needs its oil customers.
Less than 20 percent of Iran's oil is exported to European countries and the country is working to customers in the Asian subcontinent and East Asia.