All options are on the table for Iran to protect its interests in global oil trade

Tabnak – As part of its policy of maximizing pressures on Iran, the United States is seeking to put restrictions on international transit of Iranian oil. In response, the Islamic Republic has resorted to the international legal bodies for protection, while warning that its military might will deter those who want to threaten the country’s interests.

In this vein, Iran says it plans to sue the United States at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for sanctioning its maritime transport services.

Mohammad Rastad, the managing director of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, was quoted by media as saying that a complaint to the same effect would be filed to the IMO in London next week against what he described as “cruel US sanctions and restrictions on maritime transport.”

Rastad added that Iran’s complaint would be based on international laws that govern the maritime industry, stressing that Tehran would accordingly publish an official document detailing the points in which Washington would be found guilty of violating those laws.

The administration of US President Donald Trump resumed sanctions on Iran’s oil, shipping and banking industries last Monday, months after he pulled out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

Accordingly, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said last week that Iranian vessels would lose access to international insurance markets under the US sanctions and so would be a risk to ports and canals which allowed them access.

At the same time, Iran’s armed forces have pledged to protect the country’s oil tankers against possible threats after the United States said the ships should not be allowed to dock anywhere because they were a “floating liability.”

“Iran’s armed forces ... are prepared today as in the past to protect our fleet of oil tankers against any threats so that it can continue to use marine waterways,” Rear-Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, a deputy commander of Iran’s Army, said Monday.

Mousavi warned that hindering Iran’s transportation and trade through international waterways was “unacceptable” and the Islamic Republic’s armed forces were prepared to “to protect our commercial fleet ... as they have in the past 40 years.”

The military official also played down Washington's rhetoric and said the US has time and again hurled such threats against Iran only to find that “they have never had nor will they have” any effect in the future.

US officials have already said the sanctions would be meant to bring down Iran’s oil exports to zero. However, Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected the feasibility of this, stressing that international consumers cannot afford to lose Iranian supplies.