MOSCOW, July 14, (Agencies): Russian companies are ready to supply fuel to energy-hungry Iran, despite unilateral US and EU sanctions targeting Tehran’s oil and gas sectors, the Russian energy minister said on Wednesday.
The pledge came amid a period of tension between Russia and Iran unprecedented in the last two decades, compounded this week by President Dmitry Medvedev’s statement that Tehran was nearing the potential to build an atomic bomb.
“Russian companies are prepared to deliver oil products to Iran. The possibility of delivering oil products to Iran exists, if there is a commercial interest,” said Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko.
Russia has already expressed its dissatisfaction with the sanction measures agreed last month by the United States and the European Union to punish Iran for its defiance in the nuclear standoff.
These go beyond the new UN sanctions that were agreed by Russia and other world powers which mainly target military-related industries.
“Sanctions cannot hinder us,” Shmatko said after a meeting in Moscow with Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir Kazemi, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The two ministers also signed a joint declaration boosting cooperation in energy that envisages Moscow and Tehran creating a “roadmap” to plan out their future oil and gas cooperation.
The declaration says that the two sides will also consider the creation of a joint bank to finance oil and gas projects as well as the founding of other joint energy ventures.
Iran, which holds around 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves, is the world’s fourth-biggest oil exporter and the second-largest producer in the oil cartel Opec after Saudi Arabia.
However a lack of refining capacity and inefficiency problems means Iran has to import vast volumes of petrol from a variety of sources in order to satisfy domestic demand.
According to Russian news agencies, Mir Kazemi declared that sanctions “will in no way have an effect on the economic and industrial development of Iran. Independent countries are truly cooperating with Iran.”
Russia has traditionally been seen as a close political and economic ally of the Islamic Republic, but Medvedev’s recent hardening of the Russian line on the Iranian nuclear drive has deeply irritated Tehran.
His comment that Iran was nearing nuclear weapons capacity prompted an angry reaction from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who rejected the remarks as “totally false”.
The sanctions signed into law by US President Barack Obama effectively shut US markets to any firms that provide Iran with refined petroleum products.
EU leaders have agreed sanctions banning new investment, technical assistance and technology transfers to Iran’s gas and oil industries. The details are to be approved at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on July 26.
Surfaced
Meanwhile, Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who surfaced in Washington after going missing for more than a year, left for home Wednesday vowing to reveal details of his claimed abduction at gunpoint by US spies.
Iran’s foreign ministry said the nuclear expert would arrive in Tehran early Thursday morning via Qatar.
His mysterious disappearance from Saudi Arabia early in June 2009 while on a pilgrimage, followed by conflicting video footages of a man claiming to be Amiri and talking of being abducted by US agents, has baffled the world media for months.
Amiri’s disappearance also became linked to rising international pressure over Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but many nations led by the United States fear masks a weapons drive.
On Tuesday, Amiri took refuge in Iran’s Interests Section office in Washington and gave interviews to Iranian television channels, claiming he had been abducted and saying he wanted to go home as soon as possible.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was nothing to stop him leaving.
“He’s free to go. He was free to come. These decisions are his alone to make,” she said.
Before jetting out of Washington on Wednesday, Amiri gave an interview to state television in which he said he had been abducted at gunpoint in Saudi Arabia.
He said he had been approached by besuited Farsi-speaking men in a car in the Saudi city of Medina and offered a ride to the mosque.
“As I opened the door, one of the passengers pulled out a gun and told me to be quiet. They gave me an injection and when I came around I was in a big plane. I was blindfolded. It was likely a military plane,” he said.
Amiri said he had been under “intense mental torture” during the past 14 months and vowed to reveal full details of his ordeal when he returns home.
The disappearance of Amiri, who worked in a university linked with the Revolutionary Guards, sparked accusations by Iranian officials that he was kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Washington denied the allegations as well as speculation in the US media that Amiri had defected to the United States and was working with the CIA.
The speculation was further compounded when a man claiming to be Amiri was shown in two different video footages on June 7 — one claiming he was kidnapped by US agents and the other saying he was studying in Tucson, Arizona.
These videos were followed by a third one a few weeks later in which the man said he had escaped from the custody of US spies in Virginia.
US officials consistently denied Amiri’s kidnapped but on Tuesday State Department spokesman Philip Crowley confirmed that Washington had been in touch with him.
“The United States government has maintained contact with him,” he said, adding that Amiri “has been here for some time, I’m not going to specify for how long.”
Crowley also refused to comment on whether Amiri had provided Washington with intelligence.
Iran said the Foreign Ministry would pursue Amiri’s case through legal and diplomatic channels to nail down what part the US government played in the saga.
Amiri was quoted by Iranian state TV on Tuesday as saying: “My kidnapping was a disgraceful act for America”.
Intelligence about the Iranian nuclear programme is at a premium for the United States, which fears that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten its close ally, Israel, as well as oil supplies from the Gulf, and friendly nations in Europe.
Asked why Amiri was going back, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said:
“He may well be feeling some pressure from back home. The Iranians aren’t beyond using family to influence people. That could be one explanation for his contradictory messages.”
He also sought to cast doubt on Amiri’s account, saying the fact that he had been free to make videos and to leave undercut his claim of coercion.
Amiri said he would reveal more details on his arrival in Iran. “I have a very long and detailed story ... I have explained some key parts in the footage broadcast in the past.”