Agencies-Gaza post
Russian oil giant plans to sue US
Rosneft plans to take the Treasury to court over allegations of Iranian crude oil smuggling
Russian oil company Rosneft plans to file a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department, the company’s spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told the Vedomosti newspaper this week. Rosneft’s decision followed allegations by the Treasury Ministry that the Russian company had been involved in oil smuggling and money laundering for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, the spokesman said.
“We will defend our interests in court” said Leontiev. “All [US Secretary of State] Blinken says they are intentionally unprovable lies with selfish undertones. Because, from the perspective of the interests of the current US administration, he has failed in everything he could.”
Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that the United States is imposing sanctions on an international network implicated in oil smuggling and money laundering. He said the network would be led by current and former Quds Force figures, “supported by higher levels of government of the Russian Federation” They also included Chinese companies and a former Afghan diplomat.
The US official threatened to sanction anyone who buys Iranian oil.
For more than three years, the United States has blocked Iran’s oil trade after the Trump administration pulled out of the international nuclear deal. In April 2019, Washington threatened sanctions against countries that continue to buy oil from Tehran after an initial six-month waiver announced in November expired.
