![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/Iran_Regimes_State_TV_Blasted_Over_Report_on_Secret_Oil_Sales-1.jpg\" "\\"Iran_Regimes_State_TV_Blasted_Over_Report_on_Secret_Oil_Sales-1\\"")
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Officials of Iran’s regime slammed the state broadcaster on Wednesday for airing a program on oil sales to China that contravene US sanctions, saying the report went \u201cagainst national interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington abandoned a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers last year and reimposed sanctions on the regime\u2019s crucial oil sales as well as other parts of the economy.<\/p>\n
The \u201cHello, Good Morning\u201d television talk show featured on Tuesday a program on the Salina, an Iranian-flagged tanker under US sanctions that reportedly had delivered 1 million barrels of crude oil to China\u2019s Jinzhou port in late June.<\/p>\n
China \u2013 along with Britain, France, Germany and Russia \u2013 is one of the signatories to the nuclear deal and has rejected US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s efforts to cut Iranian oil exports to zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis shows that sanctions are ineffective and Iran\u2019s path to sell its oil is not blocked,\u201d the program\u2019s host said, showing what he claimed were satellite photos of the tanker berthed at the Chinese port.<\/p>\n
The state broadcaster immediately came under fire from local state media who called the program \u201csuspicious,\u201d with officials weighing in the next day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will hurt our national interests,\u201d the state-run ISNA news agency quoted the regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.<\/p>\n
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the program \u201chas undone what the ministry set out to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had said previously that Iran was keeping up oil sales through \u201cunconventional\u201d means kept secret to skirt US sanctions.<\/p>\n
State television responded by saying the information was already public, pointing to a Financial Times report published last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Americans were going to track the tanker, they would have last week and did not need Hello, Good Morning to remind them in Farsi\u201d, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Zanganeh said republishing reports by foreign media \u2013 some of which are Iran\u2019s \u201cenemies\u201d \u2013 is \u201cinappropriate\u201d and state television should only report \u201cnews on oil export confirmed by the oil ministry\u201d, ISNA reported.<\/p>\n
As part of its \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign against the Iranian regime, Washington has vowed to reduce Tehran’s foreign currency earnings via blocking its oil, petrochemical and metal exports.<\/p>\n
Based in part on wire reports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officials of Iran’s regime slammed the state broadcaster on Wednesday for airing a program on oil sales to China that contravene US sanctions, saying the report went “against national interests.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":53378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-26408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-a-world","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n